Original articleOrdovician chitinozoans and acritarchs from southern and southeastern TurkeyChitinozoaires et acritarches ordoviciens du sud et du sud-est de la Turquie
Introduction
Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks are fairly widely represented in Turkey (Fig. 1). Many of the formations crop in the central and eastern parts of the Taurus Range belonging to the Anatolian microplate (e.g., Seydisehir, Akyaka, Ovacik, Kozan or Degirmentas areas). Other outcrops are situated in southeastern Turkey, in the Border Folds (e.g., Derik, Mardin, Sort Tepe, and Zab areas) where Lower Palaeozoic strata are also known in the subsurface. The Border Folds region is regarded as the northern part of the Arabian plate (Monod et al., 2003). Macrofaunas (trilobites, brachiopods, graptolites) have been described from the outcrops (Dean, 1967, Dean and Monod, 1990, Dean et al., 1999, and references therein). Early Darriwilian conodonts are also reported (Sarmiento et al., 1999). However, these fauna are frequently concentrated in restricted horizons, and thus large intervals remained poorly dated.
Palynological investigations on Lower Palaeozoic deposits from Turkey are fairly rare. They deal principally with the less mature organic-walled microfossils recorded in the Border Folds area where rich and well preserved Late Ordovician acritarchs, sporomorphs, and chitinozoans have been reported from the “Bedinan Group” s.l. (Erkmen, 1979, Miller and Bozdogan, 1989, Steemans et al., 1996). Other palynomorph assemblages are known from the Late Silurian-Early Devonian Dadas and Hazro formations (Fontaine et al., 1980, Steemans et al., 1996, Brocke et al., 2004). Preliminary data on the more mature and less well-preserved palynological material are also available from the central and eastern Taurus Range (Dean and Martin, 1992, Dean et al., 1993, Monod et al., 2003, Paris et al., 2004).
Section snippets
Samples and localities
In recent years, a reappraisal of the regional lithological and biostratigraphical data has been made through extensive field investigations carried out by some of us (O.M, H.K., W.T.D, J.-F. G), with particular emphasis being devoted to the Hirnantian glacial related deposits (Ghienne et al., 2001, Monod et al., 2003). All these new data provide a more robust framework for the palynological investigations being developed to complete, and/or to improve the chronostratigraphical information
Organic-walled microfossils from the Taurus Range
Preservation of the organic-walled microfossils is highly variable in southern Turkey. It ranges from brownish to black and frequently fragmented chitinozoan specimens in the Taurus Range (e.g., Seydisehir, Akyaka, Kozan, Degirmentas regions) where accurate identifications at specific level are scarce. The acritarchs and cryptospores are also usually poorly preserved (dark yellow-brown to black coloured vesicles; Plate 5). This contrasts with the well-preserved (low thermal alteration)
Organic-walled-microfossils from the Border Folds
The Border Folds of SE Turkey are regarded as representing the northern part of the Arabian Plate in the Palaeozoic palaeogeography. Both outcrop and subsurface samples from this area (e.g., Derik, Mardin, Diyarbakir, Zap valley regions) have been processed.
Palynological investigations have been carried out on 17 surface samples from the Derik-Mardin composite section (Fig. 6) and from the Sort Tepe section (GBS 16 to GBS 30), and on 41 cutting samples from three deep wells CEYLANPINAR 1 (Fig. 7
Conclusions
All the investigated Ordovician formations in southern and southeastern Turkey yield chitinozoans and acritarchs providing useful chronostratigraphic information. The precision of the datings depends greatly on the preservation of the microfossils. However, even in the Taurus Range, where the organic matter is more mature, fairly accurate age assignments in terms of Ordovician Global Stages can be proposed for most of the formations, that is in ascending order, the Seydisehir, Sobova, Kilgen
Acknowledgements
This is a contribution to ECLIPSE 2 program (CNRS, France) and to IGCP No. 503 Project. The authors are grateful to TPAO General Director and Exploration Group for all the facilities that were always provided for the fieldwork since the beginning of this study initiated by the late Ozan Sungurlu, and to TOTAL SA (France) for providing the subsurface samples. Part of the samples was processed in Orléans University by M. Hatton (ISTO). The authors thank Jacques Verniers and Thijs Vandenbroucke
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