f Cruziana Pavements In The Kümperli Region, Nw Kahramanmaraş, Se Of Turkey

Well-preserved Cruziana pavements have been recently extraordinarly found in Lower Ordovician units of Amanos Mountain near NW Kahramanmaraş-Kümperli area (SE, Turkey). Cruziana pavements lithologically presents Lower Ordovician siliciclastic. The morphology and orientation of scratchmarks in these traces suggest that they may have been constructed by as trilobite traces, although some may have been produced by different types of arthropods. The traces are assigned to the Cruziana rugosa group. Ichnofossils have been useful particularly in depicting the Precambrian/Cambrian and Cambrian/Ordovician boundaries (Crimes, 1968, 1969; Seilacher, 1970). Many of these correlations imply the use of various species of the ichnogenus Cruziana as biostratigraphic indicators, because their morphological complexity is high and commonly corresponds well to specific groups of trilobites (Seilacher, 1990). The limitation of Cruziana to Paleozoic strata corresponds to the stratigraphic range of trilobites and, thus, has been inferred to have biostratigraphic significance (Crimes, 1968, 1969; Seilacher, 1970, 1990, 1994). Trace fossils commonly are preserved in sequences devoid of other fossils and, thus, may provide useful biostratigraphic data in certain situations. This papers objective is to discuss the significance of abundant, large Cruziana which were collected from the Lower Ordovician units of Amanos Mountain near NW Kahramanmaraş-Kümperli area (SE, Turkey). The morphology, biostratigraphic implications, ethological significance, and possible taxonomic identity of trace fossils are addressed.