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Late Triassic to Early Jurassic radiolarian, conodont and ammonite assemblages from the Tavuscayiri block, Mersin Mélange, southern Turkey: Time constraints for the T/J boundary and sedimentary evolution of the southern margin of the northern Neotethys

ABSTRACT The Mersin Mélange (northwest of Mersin city) includes a variety of large sedimentary blocks/tectonic slices of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic origins. Of these, the latter represents facial and tectonostratigraphic counterparts of the Beysehir-Hoyran Nappes (remnants of the northern Neotethys). The Tavuscayiri Block, located at the center of the mélange and close to the Orbuklukeli hill, is one of such Mesozoic occurrences, with a continuous pelagic sequence from the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic. At the Orbuklukeli hill, a succession of middle Norian to Toarcian age has been precisely dated, which starts with conodont assemblages for the Norian and Rhaetian and includes radiolarians for the upper Rhaetian. An acidic tuff layer corresponds to the T-J boundary, which passes above to an increasingly dominating chert-bearing limestone series, marking a gradually deepening-upward of the sequence. The early Hettangian radiolarians are poorly represented, but diverse and well-preserved radiolarians have been retrieved from the middle Hettangian to the Pliensbachian. A total of eighty-five taxa, including fourteen new species, have been determined. In addition to these, one new genus (Praeudalia Tekin, n. gen.) has been described from the Rhaetian part of the section. The top of the section is represented by nodular limestones in Ammonitico rosso facies, including a diverse Toarcian ammonite fauna. All lithologies of the Orbuklukeli section along the Tavuscayiri Block can be correlated with the previously described lithologies of the Kayabasi Group/Formation in the Bozkir Unit, and Gülbahar/Gümüslü units in the Lycian Nappes.