Peri-Gondwanan acritarchs, chitinozoans, and miospores from Paleozoic succession in the High Zagros Mountains, southern Iran: Regional stratigraphic significance and paleogeographic implications

Biostratigraphy and palaeogeographic implications of Ordovician and Silurian chitinozoa from the High Zagros Mountains, Northern Persian Gulf, Iran

“…This tectonic phase is described in the Arabian Peninsula (Jones and Stump 1999; Al-Husseini 2004) and the western desert of Iraq (Aqrawi et al 1998). The Faraghan Formation (Early Permian) was deposited over a peneplaned surface ranging from Early Cambrian to Devonian in age (Ghavidel-Syooki 1997, 2021) and composed of transgressive siliciclastics dated as Early Permian by palynological data. The Faraghan Formation is 55m thick in its stratotype in Kuh-e Faraghan and 500m thick in the Chal-i Sheh area (Ghavidel-Syooki 1997).…”

“…Amongst the taxa mentioned earlier, D. minor and C. campanulaeformis are long-ranging species as they were recovered in Ordovician–Silurian units in many localities in the Baltic region (Eisenack 1931), Middle-Late Ordovician of Algerian Sahara (Oulebsir and Paris 1995); Early–Middle Ordovician of Morocco (Elaouad-Debbaj 1984); Ordovician of Turkey (Paris et al 2007); Middle–Late Ordovician of England (Jenkins 1967; Van Nieuvanhove et al 2006; Vandenbroucke 2008); the Arabian Peninsula (Al-Hajri 1995; Paris et al 2015; Al-Shawareb et al 2017); Iran (Ghavidel-Syooki 2001, 2008, 2016, 2021; Ghavidel-Syooki and Winchester-Seeto 2002; Ghavidel-Syooki and Borji 2018; Ghavidel-Syooki and Piri-Kangarshahi 2021).…”

“…The Spinachitina oulebsiri biozone has been recorded from the Hirnantian at numerous localities in the North Gondwana palaeo-province (Le Heron and Craig 2008; Abuhmida 2013; Le Hérissé et al 2013), Turkey (Steemans et al 1996; Paris et al 2007), and Iran (Ghavidel-Syooki 2008; Ghavidel-Syooki et al 2011b; Ghavidel-Syooki 2016, 2017, 2021; Ghavidel-Syooki and Borji 2018; Ghavidel-Syooki and Piri-Kangarshahi 2021). The co-occurrence of chitinozoan species in this biozone is Spinachitina verniersi Vandenbroucke et al, (2009), which has been recorded in the Soom Shale Member of the Cedarberg Formation from South Africa with the latest Hirnantian to probably earliest Rhuddanian age (Vandenbroucke et al 2009); from the Hirnantian, M'Kratta Formation (Well N1-2), northeast of the Algerian Sahara (Paris et al 2000a); Hirnantian, the Lower and Upper members of the Second Bani Formation in the central Anti-Atlas of Morocco (Bourahrouh et al 2004); Hirnantian, the Zapla Formation of northwestern Argentina (De La Puente 2009; De La Puente and Rubinstein 2013); Ordovician-Silurian boundary, northwestern Argentina (De La Puente et al 2020), and Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian chitinozoans from the Upper Member of the Salar del Rincón Formation, northwestern Argentina (De Le Puente et al 2020).…”

“…Chitinozoan research during the past decades has resulted in well-documented data for three central palaeogeographic provinces: Laurentia (Achab 1988), Baltica (Grahn 1982), and North Gondwana (Paris 1990; Al-Hajri 1995; Oulebsir and Paris 1995; Verniers et al 1995; Paris et al 2000a, 2000b, 2007, 2015; Ghavidel-Syooki 2000b, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2021; Ghavidel-Syooki and Winchester-Seeto 2002; Bourahrouh et al 2004; Ghavidel-Syooki et al 2011a, 2011b; Gutiérrez-Marco et al 2013; Al-Shawareb et al 2017; Hayton et al 2017; Ghavidel-Syooki and Piri-Kangarshahi 2021). Despite the increasing number of high-resolution studies, fundamental differences have not been registered in the composition of chitinozoan assemblages between major palaeogeographic domains.…”

Assessing Thermal Maturity through a Multi-Proxy Approach: A Case Study from the Permian Faraghan Formation (Zagros Basin, Southwest Iran)

“…Nonetheless, despite its increasing importance in hydrocarbon exploration, few studies have yielded data concerning the thermal maturity of organic matter (OM) in Iran's Permian sequences [9,13]. In the present paper, we try to fill this gap by focusing on the Faraghan Formation which is widely distributed in the Zagros area (SW Iran; Figure 1 [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and was recently attributed to the middle Permian (Guadalupian [21,22]). The Zagros area is a laterally extensive basin with a complex geodynamic and paleotectonic history.…”