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Issue: Vol. 1 No. 3: September 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-09-27
DOI: 10.11646/mesozoic.1.3.16
Page range: 366–378
Abstract views: 95
PDF downloaded: 57

A review of the radiolarian faunas in the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone: Implications for the tectonic evolution of the Mesotethys Ocean

State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China
State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing College, Nanjing 210049, China
Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone Mesotethys Ocean radiolarian

Abstract

The Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau marks the evolution of the Mesotethys Ocean, which has been the subject of considerable debate regarding its opening time, evolutionary pattern, and closing process. This suture zone consists of three ophiolitic mélange zones, with their evolution and relationships far from being fully understood. As an important microfossil in deep-sea sedimentation, radiolarian plays an irreplaceable role in revealing the development timeline of oceanic basins and palaeogeographic reconstructions. This paper is designed to review the existing radiolarian records in the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone with the purpose of constraining the evolution of the Mesotethys Ocean. The radiolarian faunas in the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone suggest that the Mesotethys Ocean must have opened before the Middle Triassic according to the record of Anisian radiolarians. At the same time, the Beila-Nagqu Ocean, a branch of the Mesotethys Ocean, should have already opened. The presence of diverse Jurassic and Cretaceous radiolarians in the Shiquanhe-Namtso mélange zone confirms that the Mesotethys Ocean was still a broad oceanic basin during the Early Cretaceous. Many similar radiolarian assemblages were found in the western section of the Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone and the Yarlung-Tsangpo Suture Zone, suggesting a connection between the Mesotethys and Neotethys oceans during that time.

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