New bio-magnetostratigraphic data on the Miocene “Moria Section” (Northern Apennines, Italy): connections between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean

New bio-magnetostratigraphic data have been acquired from the Burdigalian part of the Moriasection in the Umbria–Marche Apennine (Central Italy). The investigated sedimentary sequence is 55 metersthick and comprises the transition between the Bisciaro and the Schlier formations (Auctorum), composed offive meters of indurated marly limestones, followed by about 40 meters of blue marly clays capped by 10 mof alternating clays and calcareous layers. According to existing literature, the sequence contains the so-called“Piero della Francesca Level” (Auctorum), a few-centimeters-thick biotite-rich level. The sequence has beensampled for paleomagnetic and calcareous plankton analyses. Four magnetic polarity zones have been documentedin the middle and upper part of the section. The calcareous plankton content shows different degreesof preservation, from poor to good for calcareous nannofossils and poor to medium for planktonic foramini -fers. Several useful biohorizons have been observed and chronologically constrained through calibration tothe magnetostratigraphic data.The studied section ranges from the top of Chron C5Dr.1n to Chron C5Cn.2r, covering the time interval from17.7 to 16.4 Ma (according to the ATNTS04) almost continuously, with a small hiatus of at least 34 ka at theC5Dn/C5Cr transition. The integration of our results with those from previous studies of the same sectionand comparisons with data from other Mediterranean and North Atlantic sequences allows to evaluate thesynchrony of the observed biohorizons with other parts of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean duringa still relatively poorly known time interval.