Trilobites from the Çal Tepe Formation (Cambrian), Near Seydişehir, Central Taurides, Southwestern Turkey

Authors: WILLIAM T. DEAN

Abstract: The type section of the Çal Tepe Formation, near Seydişehir, is reviewed. The basal dolomite member is unfossiliferous, but the succeeding black limestone member (24 m), light-grey limestone member (10.15 m), and red nodular limestone member (46.7 m) are subdivided into thirty-seven numbered, often fossiliferous beds. Trilobites from the black limestone member, late Early Cambrian, exhibit affinities with Morocco, Spain and northwestern Europe; they include one new genus and species (Pamphyliaspis nigra) and three other new species (Condylopyge matutina, Alueva venulosa, Antatlasia scabra). The lower light-grey limestone member contains Acadoparadoxides (Acadoparadoxides) mureroensis, basal Middle Cambrian index species in Spain, with Hamatolenus (Hamatolenus) altifronsns sp. nov., and the corynexochid Clavigellus venustus, first described from southwest of Afyon, western Turkey. Trilobites from the highest bed of the member include Acadolenus?, Agraulos, Dorypyge fimbriata sp. nov., Granularia, Parasolenopleura? and Sdzuyella; Corynexochus occurs only rarely. The red nodular limestone member reflects deepening marine conditions, and the fauna includes Asturiaspis oezgueli sp. nov., Conocoryphe (Conocoryphe), Dorypyge, Eccaparadoxides marginatus sp. nov., Hartella, Peronopsis, Proampyx and the biozonal index Pardailhania hispida. Near Hadim, 70 km southeast of Çal Tepe, the fauna of the red nodular limestone member is similar to that near Seydişehir. At Çal Tepe, succeeding yellow shales (now interpreted as basal Seydişehir Formation) yielded only undetermined paradoxidid fragments, but analogous strata near Hadim contain scarce Pardailhania hispida. Youngest Upper Cambrian rocks may occur to the west of Çal Tepe, but the inferred Cambrian–Ordovician contact there is unexposed. Correlation with Cambrian successions elsewhere in southern Turkey and the Mediterranean region is reviewed.

Keywords: trilobites, biostratigraphy, Cambrian, Taurides, Turkey

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