Çakraz Formation, Çamdağ area,NW Turkey: early/mid‐Permian age,Rotliegend (Germany) and Southern Alps (Italy) equivalent—a stratigraphic re‐assessment via palynological long‐distance correlation

The palynological record from the Permian part of the Çakraz Formation from the Çamdağ area of NW Turkey has been investigated in order to obtain a more precise age assessment than achieved in previous studies. The ‘Late Permian’ age and a possible age range beginning in the Roadian (mid Permian) were discussed before for sections of palynomorph‐bearing strata occurring within the formation. These deposits are now assigned to the late Cisuralian/Guadalupian and considered to be not older than early Kungurian, and not younger than Capitanian. The new age assessment was conducted via a long‐distance, intercontinental palynostratigraphic correlation from NW Turkey to South America, where results of radiometric datings were linked to some siliciclastic sections by absolute ages to the chronostratigraphy. Common conspicuous taxa in pollen‐dominated assemblages from both regions are Lueckisporites and Vittatina such as Lueckisporites virkkiae, L. latisaccus, L. stenotaeniatus, Vittatina corrugata, V. subsaccata and V. wodehousei. These species co‐occur in strata of the northern as well as southern palaeohemisphere settings (NW Turkey and S America). Thus, Lueckisporites latisaccus, L. stenotaeniatus and Vittatina corrugata are, as well as L. virkkiae or V. subsaccata, considered as being cosmopolitan. Due to the more precise palynological dating of part of the Çakraz Formation and surrounding deposits they are here broadly correlated with Permian continental successions from the Southern Alps, Italy, including the Val Daone Conglomerate and the Verrucano Lombardo/Val Gardena Sandstone (Gröden) red beds, and the Rotliegend deposits of Germany. These results support some earlier views regarding the age and stratigraphic equivalences with European deposits. The new age for the Çakraz Formation also supports recent considerations as middle Permian (part Guadalupian), and as Cisuralian for the lower parts of the formation, such as the fossil‐bearing section with plants and tetrapod traces further east in NW Turkey, where the unit also crops out. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.