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The first Early Ordovician graptolites and marine incursions in eastern Alborz, Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2021

Adrian W. A. Rushton ,
Mansoureh Ghobadi Pour Open the ORCID record for Mansoureh Ghobadi Pour [Opens in a new window] ,
Leonid E. Popov ,
Hadi Jahangir  and
Arash Amini
Adrian W. A. Rushton
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Mansoureh Ghobadi Pour*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan 49138-15739, Iran
Leonid E. Popov
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK
Hadi Jahangir
Affiliation:
Bargab Company, Southern Motahari Street, Gorgan, Iran
Arash Amini
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan 49138-15739, Iran
*
Author for correspondence: Mansoureh Ghobadi Pour, Email: mghobadipour@yahoo.co.uk
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Abstract

Graptolites have been collected from sections through Lower Ordovician strata in northern Iran. At the Saluk Mountains, in the Kopet–Dagh region, mudrocks yielded fragmentary tubaria of Rhabdinopora sp. cf. R. flabelliformis, indicating the presence of lower Tremadocian strata there; stratigraphically, they lie between two limestone beds with the euconodont Cordylodus lindstromi. At Simeh–Kuh in the eastern Alborz Mountains (Semnan Province), upper Tremadocian – lower Floian strata include laminated dark mudstones that contain restricted graptolite faunas, mainly of small declined didymograptids; these are thought to represent incursions of plankton during periods of marine highstands. The lower major flooding surface in Simeh–Kuh coincides with an invasion of the graptolite biofacies and an incursion of Hunnegraptus? sp.; the second major flooding surface is associated with an incursion of Baltograptus geometricus. They were most probably synchronous with those in the lower part of the Hunnegraptus copiosus Biozone and at the base of the Cymatograptus protobalticus Biozone in the of the Tøyen Shale Formation succession of Västergötland, Scandinavia, suggesting that observed characters of sedimentation were eustatically controlled.

Keywords

GraptolithinaIranOrdovicianTremadocianFloian
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 158 , Issue 10 , October 2021 , pp. 1719 - 1732
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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