Discovery of new fossils in the Aketuobieke area, Nilka County,Ili, Xinjiang, and their geological signifieance

Since no fossils was found in a red evaporite sequence in the Aketuobieke area, Nilka County, Xinjiang, it has been long believed that this sequence of strata is Pliocene in age. Recently the authors have collected the brackish bivalves Acuticosta cf. cuspidate Huang, Sphaerium solidium Clessin, Sphaerium subsolidium Clessin, Sphaerium cf. subsolidium Clessin and Pisidium cf. amnicum (Mueller), ostracods, crinoids,plants from the sequence and thus demonstrate that its geologic age is Oligocene-Miocene. The lithostratigraphic unit may be correlated with the lithostratigraphic unit in the Tianshan area, Xinjiang, and thus is assigned to the Wuqia Group.