STRATIGRAPHY AND TRILOBITE FAUNAS FROM THE CAMBRIAN BURJ FORMATION 



137 



(Picard, 1942) came from the same locality, though not neces- 

 sarily the same stratum. 



3. WADI QUNAI. Section 2 km east of Arab Potash Works, Safi 

 (PNG 201.5:055.6) (Fig. 3): 



Lingulate? brachiopod with divaricate sculpture 

 'Hyolithes' cf. kingi (Richter & Richter, 1941) 

 Realaspis sp. nov. [described herein] 

 Redlichops blanckenhorni Richter & Richter, 1941 

 [described herein] 



4. WADI SARAMUJ (PNG 198:047) (Fig. 3): 



Psiloria alata (King, 1923) [type locality] 

 Trematosia radifer (Richter & Richter, 1941) [type locality] 

 'Hyolithes'' sp. 

 The brachiopods were described by Cooper (1976). 



5. KHIRBET EL-BURJ (PNG 198:047) (Fig. 3): 



Trematobolus palastinensis Richter & Richter, 1 94 1 [type 



locality] 

 Trematosia radifer (Richter & Richter, 1941) 

 'Hyolithes' sp. 



Hesa problematical Richter & Richter. 1941 [type locality] 

 Redlichops blanckenhorni Richter & Richter, 1941 [type 



locality; described herein] 



6. AL ABRASH. Ghor-es-Safi; exact locality and PNG reference 

 not known. 



Psiloria dayi Cooper, 1976 [type locality] 

 Trematosia radifer (Richter & Richter, 1941) 

 Kingaspidoides cf. obliquoculatus Geyer, 1990b [described 

 herein] 



Farther south, from the Tirana area in Israel, Parnes ( 197 1 ) described 

 several trilobites, namely species of Strenuella and the new genus 

 Timnaella, together with 'Myopsolenus' palmeri Parnes for which 

 the type locality is Har 'Amram, south of Timna. The material is 

 fragmentary and poorly preserved, and correlation is uncertain, but 

 we have confirmed Parnes' (1971: 204) suggested identification of 

 King's 'asaphid' from Wadi Rimeileh with his Onaraspis 

 [Myopsolenus] palmeri, which we take to be of about the same age 

 as the beds at Wadi Qunai. Cooper ( 1 976) described nine brachiopods 

 from the Timna area, none of which have yet been identified from 

 around the Dead Sea. 



REGIONAL CORRELATION 



The problem of recognising the Early-Middle Cambrian boundary 

 is discussed by Geyer & Palmer (1995). If the presence of 

 Paradoxides s.l. is used to recognise the Middle Cambrian, the 

 appearance of Acadoparadoxides in Morocco at a level consider- 

 ably lower than that indicated by earlier workers (e.g. Hupe 1960) 

 implies that previous records of Lower Cambrian faunas may now 

 need to be re-classified as Middle Cambrian - an opinion already 

 expressed by Opik (1975). The interval affected approximates to 

 the lower Amgan (Table 1 ) of the Siberian succession and includes 

 the Protolenus Zone of North Atlantic (Avalonian) successions. At 

 present no internationally agreed standard has been adopted 

 (Geyer & Palmer 1995: 462), but in the present paper the Moroc- 

 can usage of Geyer ( 1 990a) and Geyer & Palmer ( 1 995 ) is adopted 

 to facilitate correlation in the Mediterranean area. In 1990 Geyer 

 took the base of the Middle Cambrian at the base of the 

 Hupeolenus Zone, although Geyer & Palmer (1995) showed 

 Paradoxides s.l. extending down into its uppermost part only. In 

 the following discussion reference is made to the stratigraphical 

 successions shown in Table 1. 



Wadi Zarqa Ma'in. The two trilobites recorded from Wadi 

 Zarqa Ma'in are known elsewhere. In Siberian sections on the rivers 

 Amga and Lena Palaeoleims antiquus characterises the antiquus 

 Zone, the basal zone of the Middle Cambrian as traditionally 

 recognised there, and the range of Schistocephahts juvenis lies 

 immediately above that of P. antiquus. In Morocco S. cf. juvenis 

 occurs with Acadoparadoxides in the Cephalopyge Zone (Sdzuy 

 1995), and it is assumed that the/ 3 antiquus Zone correlates with the 

 underlying beds, i.e. approximately IheHupeolenusZone.Kingaspis 

 campbelli is recorded from Morocco (Geyer 1990b: 44) in strata 

 questionably referred to thefrequens Zone (Table 1 ), the third zone 

 above the base of the Middle Cambrian as recognised by Geyer 

 ( 1990a). Assuming that the more reliable evidence is th&Palaeolenus- 

 Schistocephalus sequence, the upper part of the Burj Formation at 

 Wadi Zarqa Ma'in is correlated approximately with the Hupeolenus 

 Zone. 



Southern end of Dead Sea. It is more difficult to assess the 

 age of the Burj Formation in the type area as nearly all the fossils 

 are known only from the Dead Sea and Rift Valley region. 

 Kingaspidoides cf. obliquoculatus is closest to a species known 

 from the Hupeolenus Zone in the lowest Middle Cambrian of 

 Geyer's (1990a) Moroccan sequence. The metadoxidid Realaspis, 

 which has a relatively distinctive pygidium, is known by the type 

 and only described species R. strenoides: this genus, with Pseudo- 

 lenus, characterises the base of the Bilbilian in Spain (Linan et al. 

 1993), a level that has been correlated with the the lowest Middle 

 Cambrian of Geyer. namely the Hupeolenus Zone. The fragments 

 of Onaraspis palmeri (Parnes) from Wadi Rimeileh (= Wadi At 

 Tayan) suggest probable correlation of the Burj Formation with 

 the Mikhrot and/or Upper Hakhlil members of the Timna Forma- 

 tion of the Timna area (Parnes 1971). All the other species 

 described from that region appear to be endemic and the genera 

 they represent are either new or stratigraphically long-ranging 

 (Parnes 1971; Cooper 1976). 



Discussion. The stratigraphical resolution of these faunas for 

 wider correlation is not very good, but, so far as can be judged, they 

 all indicate a comparatively restricted stratigraphical level close to 

 the Lower-Middle Cambrian boundary as recognised by Geyer 

 ( 1 990a) and Geyer & Palmer ( 1 995 ). They indicate correlation of the 

 Burj Formation with the Hupeolenus Zone of Morocco, probably 

 with the lower part of the Bilbilian Stage of Spain, and with the 

 lowest part of the Amgan Stage in Siberia. Sdzuy (1995) demon- 

 strated the correlation of overlying strata: the Cephalopyge Zone of 

 Morocco with the lowest Leonian of Spain and the middle zone of 

 the Amgan (Table 1 ). 



According to Linan & Gamez-Vintaned (1993: 838), strata in 

 Spain show evidence of what they term the Daroca Marine Regres- 

 sion during the Bilbilian Stage at a level somewhat above its base, 

 and they attribute it to a eustatic fall of sea-level. If our correlation of 

 the Burj Formation with the lower Bilbilian is correct, it is probable 

 that it was the Daroca Regression which re-established fluvial 

 deposition over Jordan and on the Arabian Craton. The sea retreated 

 towards Turkey where, although correlatives of the Hupeolenus 

 Zone have not been recorded, faunas of Middle Cambrian age are 

 well described by Dean and his co-workers (e.g. Dean & Ozgiil 

 1994): such faunas commence with approximate correlatives of the 

 Cephalopyge Zone, and range up through the Middle Cambrian, and 

 confirm the persistence of marine deposition in areas to the north of 

 Jordan and Syria. 



