Vörös A. szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 12. 1985. (Budapest, 1985)

quently WENDT (1965, p. 29Q}.published a list of a condensed Upper Aalenian to Lower Callovian ammonite fauna, with some elements suggesting the presence of the Middle Bathonian. Later WENDT (1969, fig. 3) recorded "massive, bedded, nodular limestone", i.e. continuous sedimentation from the Middle Bajocian up to the uppermost Jurassic. Fig. 1, Simplified geological map of the locality (asterisk) on Monte Kumeta, Sicily. 1: slope debris; 2: Middle Miocene clay-marls; 3r Lower Miocene carbonates; 4: Miocene - Oligocène siltstone (Numidian Flysch); 5: Middle Eocene - Upper Cretaceous white and pink pelagic limestone (Scaglia); 6: Lower Cretaceous - Upper Jurassic pelagic limestone (Lattimusa); 7; Upper and Middle Jurassic red limestone (Rosso Ammonitico); 8: Lower Jurassic - Upper Triassic platform carbonates; 9: faults; 10: overthrust In 1983 around the top of Monte Kumeta several small quarries worked the red Middle Jurassic limestones, giving good opportunities of study. Numerous faunules of different Jurassic horizons were collected, one of which is treated here. The locality (Fig. 1) is near to the easternmost edge of the hill-top, where the underlying platform carbonates form most of the surface exposures. The Bathonian fauna was found in the northern side of a W-E running gorge of c. 30 m width. The morphology suggests the presence of a wide fissure filled with megabreccia of different Jurassic blocks. Other possibility is a local depression on top of the underlying massive carbonates, where the Middle Jurassic condensation horizon was preserved as an erosional remnant. Further field studies would be necessary to find out the actual situation. PRESERVATION OF THE FAUNA The collected ammonites are incomplete but partially well-preserved specimens. AH are eroded on one side, while the other side clearly shows the details of the sculpture, being retained the recrystallized shell. The body chambers are usually missing, and the once fragmented phragmocones have been covered by thin ferromanganous crust or film, and the subsequent erosion has worn out these partially broken specimens. On the other hand, the infilling material and the matrix of the fossils are practically the same red micritic limestone, and this fact indicates insignificant transport. The presence of Lower and Middle Bathonian elements in the fauna (see below) suggests temporal condensation, so all factors indicate complex depositional history. Without detailed sedimentological analysis one can conclude reworking and associated faunal mixing in the Middle Bathonian.