Radiolarian biochronology of Mesozoic deep-water successions in NW Syria and Cyprus: implications for south-Tethyan evolution

New radiolarian biostratigraphical data have shed light on the Mesozoic tectonic evolution of South-Tethys in the Baer-Bassit region of NW Syria. Radiolarian assemblages of Late Triassic, Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous age were extracted from radiolarites in five measured sections. The results are compared with published radiolarian ages from the Mamonia Complex, western Cyprus. These two areas are interpreted as preserved fragments of the conjugate margins of a small South Tethyan oceanic basin formed by Triassic rifting. In the southerly (i.e. Arabian) margin, proximal successions were dominated by shallow-water-derived carbonate, whereas distal successions reveal seamount-type alkaline/peralkaline volcanism, dated as both Late Triassic and Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. Along the inferred northern margin (i.e. western Cyprus) proximal successions are dominantly terrigenous, whereas distal settings include Late Triassic oceanic crust and seamount-type lavas.