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1 Micropaléontologie, Université P. & M. Curie (Paris VI), CNRS-UMR 5143, C. 104, 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France danelian{at}ccr.jussieu.fr
2 Grant Institute of Earth Science, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK
3 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
4 Département des Sciences de la Terre, Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
New radiolarian ages for blocks of radiolarian cherts associated with other blocks of distal pelagic facies and ophiolitic lithologies within the Lycian Mélange, SW Turkey, indicate deposition during Mid-Jurassic to Early Cretaceous time. Radiolarites overlying pink pelagic limestones of an allochthonous carbonate unit accumulated during the Mid- to Late Jurassic. On the basis of structural evidence the Lycian Mélange is inferred to have been rooted within the Northern Neotethys, to the north of the Tauride-Anatolide microcontinent. The Lycian radiolarites can be compared with other dated radiolarites from the Izmir-Ankara suture, the root zone of the Northern Neotethyan ocean. Based on all the available radiolarian data it is inferred that radiolarites accumulated within the Northern Neotethys in western Turkey from Late Triassic (Mid-Carnian to Late Norian) to Mid-Cretaceous (Cenomanian) time. The radiolarites were later detached from their inferred oceanic basement and accreted within a subduction complex during the Late Cretaceous (Turonian-Maastrichtian) and emplaced over the northern margin of the Tauride-Anatolide continent together with slices of continental margin and ophiolitic lithologies.
