Documentation of Mn-deposits of western Sicily

Some marine iron pisolite beds from the Toarcian of western Sicily are described for the first time. These beds, which generally overlie the Liassic platform carbonates, are usually chocolate-brown in colour; they attain a maximum thickness of about 40 cm at one locality but are often tracable as centimetre-thick remanie horizons elsewhere. Their fauna comprises Tethyan ammonites, belemnites, gastropods, rare brachiopods, fish teeth, foraminifera and crinoid ossicles.