Arkell.1956.Jurassic..

204 ITALY AND CORSICA
Middle Jurassic beyond the average. Near Giuliano in west-central
Sicily the volcanic beds are at least 60 m. thick and the usual tuffs are
accompanied also by agglomerate and pillow-lava. On the other hand,
in the Madonie area Mr Warman observed up to 120 m. of bedded chert,
jasper and siliceous shales, between Triassic dolomites and supposed
Tithonian limestone, but was unable to find any datable fauna. (It is
likely that most of these chert beds will turn out to belong to the Domerian,
by analogy with Spain.)
The third Jurassic group in Sicily, the Kimeridgian and Tithonian, is
widely developed in the 'Tethyan facies', nodular pink, white or grey
limestones (fansse breche, Knollenkalk), often crowded with ammonites,
in which Phylloceratids predominate. Both the Kimeridgian and the
lower part of the Tithonian are developed in this facies and there is no
break between them. Higher up the Tithonian passes into compact,
fine-grained, bedded white limestones with few macroscopic fossils but
many Calpionellidae; and here again there is a perfect transition into the
Neocomian and it is often impossible to discern any boundary. In places
similar limestones, which had been mapped as Jurassic, are in fact Upper
Cretaceous and Eocene (Warman & Arkell, 1954).
In the Madonie Mountains and between them and Palermo the
Tithonian takes on a coral and algal facies, which is usually from 10 to
75 m. thick but in one place swells out (as a reef ?) to perhaps 300 m.
The following summary of the faunas is based on a combination of
published works and my examination of Mr Warman's collections.
TITHONIAN (usually about 10-20 m.)
Most of the Tithonian ammonites that can be collected come from
the nodular limestones and are of Lower Tithonian age. Some have been
figured by G. G. Gemmellaro (1868-76) and Di Stefano (1884), and a
number of new species were founded on inadequate descriptions and
atrocious drawings by Marquis de Gregorio (1922). A promised revision
by Renz (1924), based on the collections in Palermo museum, was never
published. The most valuable document is a summary of the faunas at a
number of localities in the provinces of Palermo and Girgenti by M.
Gemmellaro (1922).
Perhaps the only reliable indications of Upper Tithonian collected by
Mr Warman are from Monte Bonifato, where he obtained Micracanthoceras
cf. fraudator (Zittel), Calliphylloceras kochi (Oppel) and many poorly
preserved Phylloceratids and other ammonites. Micracanthocer as sp.
was also obtained at Palazzo Adriano (Portella di Gebbia, province of
Palermo), but most of this fauna, already listed by M. Gemmellaro
(1922, pp. 78-9), is Lower Tithonian. It includes Virgatosphinctes geron
(Zittel), Spiticeras grotianum (Oppel), Proniceras pronum (Oppel), Hybonoticeras
hybonotum (Oppel), H. kamicense Schopen sp. (1888) and many
other ammonites.
http://jurassic.ru/