Microfaunes et microfacies du permo-carbonifère du sud Tunisien : Ch. Glintz-Boeckel et Té. Brill, Leiden, 1964, 263 pp., Dfl. 85,00

Abstract

Only a few papers have, so far, been published about the Upper Palaeozoic of Tunisia, but those which appeared, mentioned the presence of generally fossiliferous deposits, mainly of Permian age. The book by Glintzboeckel and Rabaté gives a short review of the microfauna and microfacies of the Permo-Carboniferous in the south of Tunisia. They distinguish three provinces: (1) The Upper Permian of the Djebel Tebaga, in the area of Medenine, where a thick shale formation is found that has been laid down in a rapidly subsiding basin. (2) The reef facies of the Upper Permian in the Bir Soltana area, southwest of the Djebel Tebaga. (3) The Permo- Carboniferous in the marginal Gefara (Namurian, Moscovian, Upper Carboniferous, Lower Permian, doubtful Middle Permian, Upper Permian), mainly represented by limestones. The affinities of the southern Tunisian microfacies with those in other Mediterranean areas are striking. A most useful table is presented, showing the correlation with contemporaneous deposits in the U.S.A., Turkey, Carnian Alps, eastern Europe, the U.S.S.R. and China. The successions in the various areas are given, unconventionally, in a horizontal rather than in a vertical order. In addition to this table there are valuable tables showing the stratigraphic distribution of the most important microfossils in each of the three provinces. Despite the relatively small amount of text in the book, neither authors nor publishers seem to have paid much attention to careful and consistent copyediting and proof-reading. The main part of the book consists of 233 photomicrographs, united to 108 plates. They are printed on art paper; on this basis, the quality of reproduction could have been better.