Danata Formation
| Danata Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Early Eocene-Mid Eocene ~ | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 38°38′N 55°48′E / 38.633°N 55.800°E |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 35°06′N 51°12′E / 35.1°N 51.2°E |
| Country | Turkmenistan |
The Danata Formation (or Danatinskaya, Danatinsk, Russian: Danata Svita) is an earliest Eocene to Middle Eocene sedimentary succession located in Turkmenistan. It is mostly famous for its fish-bearing horizons (Ichthyofauna). The formation for example crops out in the Kopet Dag mountain range in the border region of Turkmenistan and Iran. It was deposited in a far northeastern arm of the Tethys Sea.
Previously, it was thought that the earliest horizons of this formation dated to the latest Paleocene (Thanetian). However, more recent studies have found the formation's sapropel to originate from a global anoxic event caused by the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, indicating that it formed just after the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, during the earliest Ypresian.