Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Radiolaria from the Sula Islands (East Indies): Their taxonomic, biostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, and paleobiogeographic significance

Abstract This report deals with the Upper Jurassic (lower and middle Oxfordian) Radiolaria of the Sula Islands, Indonesia. The radiolarian assemblage, though abundant and extremely well preserved, is poorly diversified and includes ∼ fifty species level taxa. The presence of common Praeparvicingula and rare pantanelliids within the faunal assemblage in association with Austral ammonites suggests that the Sula Islands were situated in the Northern Austral Province (>30° south) during the Oxfordian. This paleolatitude is in keeping with the Gondwanaland origin proposed by some workers. The Sula Island middle Oxfordian assemblage is strikingly similar to that described from the Galice Formation (Smith River subterrane, Klamath Mountains, North America). Some faunal elements described from the Sula Island assemblage are characteristic of the Southern Hemisphere and are only known elsewhere from New Zealand (Aita and Mackie 1992). Three radiolarian taxa were originally described from the Galice Formation in th...