Permian circumpacific deep-water faunas from the western Tethys (Sicily, Italy)—new evidences for the position of the Permian Tethys
Abstract Circumpacific deep-water faunas, characterized mainly by radiolarians, paleopsychrospheric ostracods and conodonts, were found in the early, middle and late Permian deposits pertaining to the Sicanian paleogeographic domain of western Sicily, near the western end of the Eurasiatic Tethys. Similar Permian deep-water faunas are known from the Phyllite Unit of Crete and from Oman in the latter area partly above oceanic crust. All these occurrences indicate the presence of a late Paleozoic Tethys ocean immediately north of Gondwana.