The Sierra de Fontcalent is located 10 km West of Alicante (SE Spain). In the 1980's it was investigated by a French team which eventually published an integrated stratigraphic study of this basinal section (Rasplus, Fourcade, et al. 1987). At that time, the first author (T.M., as T. Clerc-Renaud) was interested in the identification of Milankovic cycles in the marl-limestone alternations of the Kimmeridgian-Valanginian interval spanning the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. Among other finds she identified a periodicity of approximately 21,000 years for a marl-limestone couplet that might be related to the precession index signal.

Today, considering recent developments in cyclostratigraphy, and a better knowledge of the stratigraphic and tectonic framework of the area (Granier et al., 1995; et seq.) we propose a review of this key section. The revised computer-aided calculation of the data was not made on intervals based on biostratigraphy or lithostratigraphy, but on 3 intervals identified on the basis of sedimentological (clay minerals, major elements of the carbonate phase) variations and to their discrete rates of sedimentation. The evolution of the periodicities of  the entire section and the transition between major sedimentological changes were given special attention.

As the Tithonian-Berriasian boundary was identified in the section and the location of the Berriasian-Valanginian boundary approximated (Fourcade, Rasplus et al., 1989), we used cyclostratigraphy to assess the duration of the Berriasian stage and we compared it with previous time scales (van Hinte, 1976; Odin, 1994; Gradstein et al., 2004). Our results agree better with those of the older authors. Accordingly, we retain their durations to approximate the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian boundary as well as those of the 3 key intervals, allowing a dating of these main sedimentary events.