Ichnostratigraphic correlation of Lower Palaeozoic clastics in the Kufra Basin (SE Libya)

Abstract

The Lower Palaeozoic deposits in North Africa are dominated by sandstones and shales which often lack biostratigraphically useful body fossils. Trilobite burrows (Cruziana) partly fill this gap and provide the basis for medium-resolution stratigraphic interpretations. Several Ordovician-Silurian ichnostratigraphically significant Cruziana forms have been found and studied in the Kufra Basin (SE Libya), including C. goldfussi and C. furcifera from the Lower Ordovician Hawaz Fm. and a new ichnospecies, C. kufraensis, occurring in transgressive sandstones at the base of the Lower Silurian Tanezzuft Fm. The upper Tanezzuft Fm. and Akakus Fm. typically contain C. acacensis, a form that is characteristic of the Lower Silurian of Northern Gondwana.