„Depositional setting of the Oligocene sequence of the Western Carpathians in the Polish Spisz region – a reinterpretation based on integrated palynofacies and sedimentological analyses” – Discussion

Abstract

In their recent paper, Filipek et al. (2017) provided some data on age (dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy) and sedimentary setting (sedimentological and palynofacial analysis) of the Podhale Flysch (Central Carpathian Paleogene) from the Polish Spisz (their fig. 1). They carried out their integrated studies on the middle part of the Podhale Flysch succession – the upper part of the Szaflary beds through the lower part of the Chochołów beds. These studies, as stated in Introduction, “…allow for a new approach to the knowledge on the CCPB with regard to stratigraphy, depositional palaeoenvironment, and changes during deposition”. Authors accented the inconsistency of some of previous studies (biostratigraphical in particular), which provoked them to undertake their studies in order to reinterpret the depositional setting. In my opinion, however, it is hardly possible to find new reinterpretations, and those presented are frequently based on erroneous, commonly random and not complete data and interpretations; none of them are compared nor discussed with previous results. Below, these controversies are briefly presented.