The analysis of calpionellid associations from jebels Amar and Jédidi sections in North-Atlasic Tunisia provides, for the first time, a precise biozonation of the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition succession. In the light of the new data obtained and considering recently published results, the age of Upper Jurassic formations is clarified, allowing correlations with the Tunisian 'Dorsale' and the North-South Axis successions. Within the Maghrebides' range, sections from the external zones correlated to the Tunisian successions are quite distinctive from their equivalent in the internal zones. Both have evolved in different palaeogeographic domains related to the early structuration of the northwestern and southwestern Tethys margins.

International audienceSince the 1970s, radiolarians have been used extensively to study and characterize basin successions from the peri-Mediterranean regions. However, no data was ever produced in Tunisia in spite of the occurrence of Jurassic siliceous series previously described by many authors. Our study presents the biostratigraphical results obtained on sections from the Jédidi Formation, which characterizes the basinal series of the Tunisian Trough. We provide new direct age determinations from the base, the middle part and the top of the formation, which ranges from the latest Bajocian–middle Bathonian to the Oxfordian (Tethyan biozones UAZ 5-6 to 8-9). The onset of these radiolarianbearing series of the Tunisian Trough, adjacent to partly coeval Ammonitico Rosso successions, is interpreted as resulting from regional palaeotopographical gradient and palaeoceanographical conditions. Inaccurately interpreted as “true” radiolarites, theses series are different from coeval radiolarites of the Maghrebian “Dorsale calcaire” and from more recent homologous deposits of the Flysch domain. They are instead correlative with series exposed in the Babors and the west-Numidian ranges of northern Algeria that belonged to the same Jurassic North African margin of western Tethys. During Alpine convergence s.l., this external domain was overthrust by nappe complexes of the Maghrebide inner zones and the Flysch domain units

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:Maalaoui, K. and Zargouni, F. 2016. The lower and middle Berriasian in Central Tunisia: Integrated ammonite and calpionellid biostratigraphy of the Sidi Kralif Formation. Acta Geologica Polonica, 66 (1), 43-58. Warszawa.The lower and middle Berriasian sedimentary succession of the Sidi Kralif Formation has been a subject of biostratigraphic study in two key sections in Central Tunisia. Our contribution is an attempt to better define the basal Berriasian interval, between the Berriasella jacobi Zone and the Subthurmannia occitanica Zone. Zonal schemes are established using ammonites and calpionellids, and these permit correlation with other regions of Mediterranean Tethys and beyond. The use of biomarkers afforded by microfossil groups has allowed characterization and direct correlation with four widely accepted calpionellid sub-zones, namely Calpionella alpina, Remaniella, Calpionella elliptica and Tintinopsella longa. The two ammonite zones of Berriasella jacobi and of Subthurmannia occitanica are recognised on the basis of their index species. The parallel ammonite and calpionellid zonations are useful as a tool for correlation and calibration in time and space, thus allowing a better definition of a J/K boundary. The presence of four Berriasian calpionellid bioevents is recognised: (1) the 'explosion' of Calpionella alpina, (2) the first occurrence of Remaniella, (3) the first occurrence of Calpionella elliptica and (4) the first occurrence of Tintinopsella longa. The last is here documented as coeval with the presence of Subthurmannia occitanica, which marks the lower/middle Berriasian boundary.