Abstract Basin-scale stratigraphic correlation is the fundamental base for successful reservoir exploration, and especially when dealing with cross-border areas. Differences in lithostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic nomenclature between sub-basins and countries often result in problematic estimations of reservoir geometries and potential. This study combines available biostratigraphic, biofaunal and lithofacies data, together with sequence-stratigraphical correlations of the Lower Jurassic from the Central European Basin (CEB), to propose a genetic-based framework of transgressive and regressive depositional units. The determination of four major biofacies environments, composed of (I) polyhaline open-marine/offshore environments, (II) upper mesohaline marine–brackish environments, (III) lower mesohaline brackish environments and (IV) low oligohaline to freshwater continental environments comprising very rare marine phytoplankton and terrestrial spores and pollens, were translated into 12 biofacies reconstructions of ammonite (sub-) chronozone levels. Variations of biofacies reconstructions in time and space were supplemented by biostratigraphically constrained large-scale progradational and retrogradational sedimentary architecture. Retrogradation is accompanied by increasing polyhaline environments and pinpoint basinwide third-order flooding events, whereas progradation is accompanied by decreasing polyhaline environments pointing to third-order regressions. The outcomes of this study support exploration of Lower Jurassic deep geothermal reservoirs or CO 2 storage sites in the eastern CEB (especially Germany and Poland). Supplementary material: A list of all documented Liassic ammonites known from the eastern European shelf area (Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Poland; wells and outcrops) is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3923467

The Early Jurassic (late Hettangian to early Toarcian) bivalve fauna of the Sierra de Santa Rosa Formation of the Antimonio terrane (Sonora, NW Mexico) is analyzed taxonomically and biogeographically. Fifty taxa are recognized, representing 36 genera and subgenera. Thirty-four of these taxa have not been mentioned from the Jurassic of this region previously. This fauna is of great biogeographical interest, because Early Jurassic bivalves from low paleolatitudes of the tectonically complex western margin of North America are still poorly documented. About half of the described species are also known from other localities along the eastern Pacific margin. The second largest group is composed of widespread taxa, which, in addition to eastern Pacific occurrences, are also reported from other regions, particularly from Europe. The smallest group is endemic taxa that appear to be limited to Sonora during the analyzed time intervals. Geological evidence indicates that the Antimonio terrane was tectonically transported southeastward between the Middle and Late Jurassic from an original position at the southwestern margin of the United States by the Mojave-Sonora megashear. We calculated similarities of contemporaneous pectinoid bivalve faunas from seven eastern Pacific regions to independently constrain Early Jurassic paleolatitudinal positions of this terrane. Cluster analyses and similarity coefficients tentatively suggest that tectonic displacement of the Antimonio terrane toward lower paleolatitudes may already have started in Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) time.