ammonites
Dursunlu (Pleistocene of Turkey)

Where: Turkey (38.3° N, 31.9° E: paleocoordinates 38.3° N, 31.9° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

When: Dursunlu Formation, Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.0 Ma)

• The Dursunlu deposit comprises (lower) Pleistocene lacustrine limestones, marls and clays with lignite beds. Cores suggest some 45-50m of sedimentary infill.

•The basal portion of core one is +5m and is fine reddish mud, presumed alluvial with a terrestrial origin.The overlying 45m are a 'shallowing upwards lacustrine sequence, incorporating intermittent episodes of fluctuating lake level(s), shallowing and even subaerial exposure(s).'

•Dating - palaeomagentism indicates Reversed polarity with two weak Normal records. It is suggested that this represents the lower part of the Matuyama Chron. Biharian on faunal records.

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - large

• Vertebrate fossils are confirmed in two levels of lignite, but others may have come from elsewhere. The known fossiliferous layers are in the upper lignite member at -10 to -12m and in the basal part of bedded silty clays at -4m.

•The majority of the cores are greenish, partially laminated clays, with lignite bands and occasional silty clays with rootlets and molluscs.

Size classes: macrofossils, mesofossils

Collection methods: salvage, sieve,

• Fossils and artefacts were recovered from the spoil heaps of a large lignite quarry.

•Microfaunal remains were recovered by sieving.

•Collection contains 175 archaeoogical artefacts.

•Specimens kept at MTA, Ankara.

Primary reference: E. Gulec, F. C. Howell, and T. D. White. 1999. Dursunlu - a new Lower Pleistocene faunal and artifact-bearing locality in southern Anatolia. in Ullrich, H., ed, Hominid evolution - Lifestyles and survival strategies. Edition Archaea, Gelsenkirchen/Schwelm. 349-364 [A. Turner/H. O'Regan/H. O'Regan] more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 39314: authorized by Alan Turner, entered by Hannah O'Regan on 26.05.2004