Near Karnezeika a roughly 140 m thick Upper Cretaceous section consists
of interbedded pelagic limestones, cherts and coarse polymict breccias
including ophiolites and shallow water limestones. At the base, pink
pelagic limestones rest on deeply altered and fractured Lower Jurassic
Pantokrator Limestone. This first pelagic facies is dated as middle
Turonian, based on planktonic Foraminifera. Over 100 m of coarse
ophiolite-carbonate breccias, interpreted as a channel or canyon fill in
a pelagic environment, document the erosion of the Late Jurassic nappe
edifice along the Cretaceous Pelagonian margin. Above these breccias, we
mesured 16 m of principally pink and red pelagic limestones and
radiolarian cherts, in which we recovered well-preserved radiolarians
discussed here. In this interval, the presence of planktonic Foraminfera
allows to state a late Turonian to Coniacian age. More than 40
radiolarian species are described and figured in this work. The
radiolarian chronostratigraphy established by 10 different authors in 11
publications was compared for this study and used to establish
radiolarian ranges. This exercise shows major discrepancies between
authors for the radiolarian ranges of the studied assemblage.
Nevertheless, a Turonian age can be stated based on a synthesis of cited
radiolarian ranges. This age is consistent with the age based on
planktonic foraminifera. In combining the ages of both Radiolaria and
planktonic Foraminifera, the studied samples can be restricted to the
late Turonian. However, the discrepancies of published radiolarian
ranges call for an urgent, major revision of the Late Cretaceous
radiolarian biochronology. The integration of planktonic foraminifera
with radiolarians may greatly enhance biochronologic resolution in
sections where both groups occur.