Ammonoid diversity patterns show that the spreading of oceanic anoxia is not the initial and major kill mechanism for the Cenomanian/Turonian mass extinction as usually suggested. In the Anglo-Paris Basin and the Vocontian Basin, the drop of ammonoid species richness starts around the middle/late Cenomanian boundary, i.e. 0.75 myr before the occurrence of anoxic deepwater sediments. The stepwise extinction of first heteromorphs and then acanthoceratids is incompatible with the rise of the

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... minimum zone. Moreover, shelf environments of these basins remained well oxygenated during the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary interval. Thus, we stress that other causative mechanisms initiated the ammonoid extinction even if anoxia subsequently participated in the demise of marine ecosystems