Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:53:53.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Late Palaeozoic trilobites of Iran and Armenia and their palaeogeographical significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2012

RUDY LEROSEY-AUBRIL
RUDY LEROSEY-AUBRIL*
Affiliation:
Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60315 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Iranian territory is composed of a mosaic of tectonic units, several of which underwent in the Permian and Triassic periods a migration from northern Gondwana to southern Laurussia associated with the opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean. Although this broad outline of Permo-Triassic palaeogeographical evolution of Iranian microplates is now widely accepted, the individual timing of migration of these blocks, and their biogeographical relationships, remain insufficiently known. Here I review the Late Palaeozoic record of trilobites in Iran and Armenia, and discuss their palaeobiogeographical affinities in an attempt to shed light on the Permian palaeogeographical evolution of Iranian and Armenian terranes. Seven Iranian or Armenian localities, representative of five tectonic units, have yielded Carboniferous and Permian trilobites. Ten species are recognized, including two new taxa, Persia praecox gen. nov. sp. nov. and Pseudophillipsia (s.l.) parvizii sp. nov. P. praecox is the only Carboniferous (Tournaisian) species. The others are Wordian to Wuchiapingian in age and can be separated into three morphological groups, probably representing clades. One is composed of representatives of Acropyge, while the two others (armenica-group and paffenholzi-group) comprise species of Pseudophillipsia. Only P. (s.l.) parvizii sp. nov. from the Zagros Mountains (Arabian Plate) is not attributed to one of these groups. The distribution of trilobites in Iran and Armenia strongly suggests that the Alborz, Central Iran and Transcaucasia microplates represented a single biogeographical unit in Middle and Late Permian times. Special relationships of this biochore with South China can also be stressed.

Keywords

TrilobitaCarboniferousPermianIranArmeniapalaeobiogeography
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 149 , Issue 6 , November 2012 , pp. 1023 - 1045
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angiolini, L., Gaetani, M., Muttoni, G., Stephenson, M. H. & Zanchi, A. 2007. Tethyan oceanic currents and climate gradients 300 m.y. ago. Geology 35, 1071–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arkhipova, O. I. 1965. Trilobites. In Razvitie i Smena Morskikh Organizmov na Rubezhe Paleozoya i Mezozoya (eds Ruzhentsev, V. E. & Sarycheva, T. G.), pp. 82–3. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).Google Scholar
Brezinski, D. K. 1992. Permian trilobites from West Texas. Journal of Paleontology 66, 924–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbestad, J. O. R. & Budd, G. E. 2003. Burlingiid trilobites from Norway, with a discussion of their affinities and relationships. Palaeontology 45, 1171–95.Google Scholar
Ernst, A., Senowbari-Daryan, B. & Hamedani, A. 2006. Middle Permian Bryozoa from the Lakaftari area, northeast of Esfahan (central Iran).Geodiversitas 28, 543–90.Google Scholar
Ezaki, Y. 1991. Permian corals from Abadeh and Julfa, Iran, West Tethys. Journal of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University. Series 4, Geology and Mineralogy 23, 53–146.Google Scholar
Ezaki, Y. 1993. Sequential disappearance of Permian Rugosa in Iran and Transcaucasus, West Tethys. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Japan 44, 447–53.Google Scholar
Feist, R., Lerosey-Aubril, R. & Johnson, R. 2010. Coaptative devices, enrollment, and life habits in Paralejurus, a particular case in scutelluid trilobites. Palaeobiodiversity & Palaeoenvironments 90, 125–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Cocks, L. R. M. 2003. Palaeontological evidence bearing on global Ordovician–Silurian continental reconstructions. Earth-Science Reviews 61, 245–307.Google Scholar
Fortey, R. A. & Owens, R. M. 1975. Proetida – a new order of trilobites. Fossils and Strata 4, 227–39.Google Scholar
Gaetani, M., Angiolini, L., Ueno, K., Nicora, A., Stephenson, M. H., Sciunnach, D., Rettori, R., Price, G. D. & Sabouri, J. 2009. Pennsylvanian Early Triassic stratigraphy in the Alborz Mountains (Iran). In South Caspian to Central Iran Basins (eds Brunet, M.-F., Wilmsen, M. & Granath, J. W.), pp. 79–128. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 312.Google Scholar
Gaillot, J. & Vachard, D. 2007. The Khuff Formation (Middle East) and time-equivalents in Turkey and South China: Biostratigraphy from the Capitanian to Changhsingian times (Permian), new foraminiferal taxa, and palaeogeographical implications. Coloquios de Paleontología 57, 37–223.Google Scholar
Gauri, K. L. 1965. Uralian stratigraphy. Trilobites and brachiopods of the Western Carnic Alps (Austria). Jahrbuch der Geologischen Bundesanstalt 11, 1–26.Google Scholar
Gemmellaro, G. G. 1892. I crostacei dei calcari con Fusulina della valle del Fiume Sosio nella Provincia di Palermo in Sicilia. Memorie della Società ltaliana delle Scienze, Serie 3 8, 1–40.Google Scholar
Goldring, R. 1957. Pseudophillipsia (Tril.) from the Permian (or Uralian) of Oman, Arabia. Senckenbergiana Lethaea 38, 195–210.Google Scholar
Grant, R. E. 1966. Late Permian trilobites from the Salt Range, West Pakistan. Palaeontology 9, 64–73.Google Scholar
Grunt, T. A. & Shi, G. R. 1997. A hierarchical biogeographical classification of the Permian global marine biogeography. In Proceedings of the 30th International Geological Congress (eds Jin, Y. G. & Dineley, D.). Palaeontology and Historical Geology 12, 2–17.Google Scholar
Haas, W., Hahn, G. & Hahn, R. 1980. Perm-Trilobiten aus Afghanistan. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 169, 73–127.Google Scholar
Hahn, G. & Brauckmann, C. 1975. Revision zweier Trilobiten-Arten aus dem Perm Asiens. Geologica et Palaeontologica 9, 117–24.Google Scholar
Hahn, G. & Hahn, R. 1967. Zur phylogenie der Proetidae (Trilobita) des Karbons und Perms. Zoologische Beiträge, Neue Folge 13, 303–49.Google Scholar
Hahn, G. & Hahn, R. 1981. Über Acropyge (Trilobitae; Ober-Perm). Senckenbergiana Lethaea 61, 217–25.Google Scholar
Hahn, G. & Hahn, R. 1987. Trilobiten aus dem Karbon von Notsch und aus den Karnischen Alpen Osterreichs. Jahrbuch der Geologischen Bundesanstalt 129, 567–619.Google Scholar
Hahn, G., Hahn, R., Müller, P. & Ramovš, A. 2002. Neue Trilobiten-Funde aus dem Unter-Perm Sloweniens. Geologica et Palaeontologica 36, 99–113.Google Scholar
Hahn, G., Hahn, R. & Ramovš, A. 1990. Trilobiten aus dem Unter-Perm (Trogkofel-Kalk, Sakmarium) der Karawanken in Slowenien. Geologica et Palaeontologica 24, 139–71.Google Scholar
Hahn, G., Hahn, R. & Yuan, J.-L. 1989. Trilobites from the Upper Carboniferous (Westphalian A) of S-China (N-Guangxi). Geologica et Palaeontologica 23, 113–203.Google Scholar
Hendricks, J. R. & Lieberman, B. S. 2007. Biogeography and the Cambrian radiation of arachnomorph arthropods. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 34, 461–71.Google Scholar
Hupé, P. 1953. Classe des trilobites. In Traité de paléontologie, Tome III, les Formes Ultimes d'Invertébrés, Morphologie et Evolution, Onychophores, Arthropodes, Echinodermes, Stomocordés (ed. Piveteau, J.), pp. 44–246. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. & Hamada, T. 1978. Two new Upper Permian trilobites from Central Iran. Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B 54, 157–62.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. & Hamada, T. 1981. A new trilobite from the Upper Permian of Central Iran. Reports of the Geological Survey of Iran 49, 55–8.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, T. & Hamada, T. 1984. Permian trilobites of Japan in comparison with Asian, Pacific and other faunas. Palaeontological Society of Japan, Special Papers 26, 1–92.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, F. & Ishii, K.-I. 2003. Palaeobiogeographic analysis of Yahtashian to Midian fusulinacean faunas of the Surmaq Formation in the Abadeh region, Central Iran. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 33, 155–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerosey-Aubril, R. 2008. Trilobite biogeography and Permian biochores. In Advances in Trilobite Research (eds Rabano, I., Gozalo, R. & Garcia-Bellido, D.). Cuadernos del Museo Geominero 9, 225–8.Google Scholar
Lerosey-Aubril, R. & Angiolini, L. 2009. Permian trilobites from Antalya Province, Turkey, and enrollment in Late Paleozoic trilobites. Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences 18, 427–48.Google Scholar
Lerosey-Aubril, R. & Feist, R. 2012. Quantitative approach of diversity and decline in late Palaeozoic trilobites. In Earth and Life: Global Biodiversity, Extinction Intervals and Biogeographic Perturbations Through Time (ed. Talent, J. A.), pp. 535–55. Dordrecht: Springer Science and Media.Google Scholar
Lerosey-Aubril, R., Hegna, T. A. & Olive, S. 2011. Inferring internal anatomy from the trilobite exoskeleton: the relationship between the frontal auxiliary impressions and the digestive system. Lethaia 44: 166–174.Google Scholar
Leven, E. J. 1998. Permian fusulinid assemblages and stratigraphy of the Transcaucasia. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigraphia 104, 299–328.Google Scholar
Leven, E. J. & Gorgij, M. N. 2006. Upper Carboniferous–Permian stratigraphy and fusulinids from the Anarak region, Central Iran. Russian Journal of Earth Sciences 8 (2), ES2002, doi: 10.2205/2006ES000200.Google Scholar
Liu, R.-Y. 1987. A new trilobite genus from Lower Carboniferous of Xinshao, Hunan and its enrollment. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 26, 493–6.Google Scholar
Lu, Y.-H. 1974. Permian trilobites. In Hand-book of Strata and Fossils of Southwest China, p. 299. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica 236.Google Scholar
Ludvigsen, R. & Chatterton, B. D. E. 1982. Ordovician Pterygometopidae (Trilobita) of North America. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19, 2179–206.Google Scholar
Mistiaen, B., Gholamalian, H., Gourvennec, R., Plusquellec, Y., Bigey, F., Brice, D., Feist, M., Feist, R., Ghobadi Pour, M., Kebria-Ee, M., Milhau, B., Nicollin, J.-P., Rohart, J.-C., Vachard, D. & Yazdi, M. 2000. Preliminary data on the Upper Devonian (Frasnian, Famennian) and Permian fauna and flora from the Chahriseh Area (Esfahan Province, Central Iran). Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord (2ème série) 8, 93–102.Google Scholar
Mohtat-Aghai, P. & Vachard, D. 2005. Late Permian foraminiferal assemblages from the Hambast region (Central Iran) and their extinctions. Revista Española de Micropaleontologia 37, 205–27.Google Scholar
Morzadec, P. 1981. Les trilobites. In La Tranchée de La Lezais, Emsien Supérieur du Massif Armoricain – Sédimentologie, Paléontologie, Stratigraphie (eds Morzadec, P., Paris, F. & Rachebœuf, P.), pp. 279–87. Mémoires de la Société Géologique et Minéralogique de Bretagne 24.Google Scholar
Muttoni, G., Gaetani, M., Kent, D. V., Sciunnach, D., Angiolini, L., Berra, F., Garzanti, E., Mattei, M. & Zanchi, A. 2009 a. Opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean and the Pangea B to Pangea A transformation during the Permian. GeoArabia 14, 17–48.Google Scholar
Muttoni, G., Mattei, M., Balini, M., Zanchi, A., Gaetani, M. & Berra, F. 2009 b. The drift history of Iran from the Ordovician to the Triassic. In South Caspian to Central Iran Basins (eds Brunet, M.-F., Wilmsen, M. & Granath, J. W.), pp. 7–29. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 312.Google Scholar
Oehlert, M. D. 1886. Étude sur quelques trilobites du groupe de Proetidae. Bulletin de la Société d’Étude des Sciences d'Angers, Nouvelle Série 15, 121–43.Google Scholar
Owens, R. M. 1983. A review of Permian trilobite genera. Palaeontology 30, 15–41.Google Scholar
Owens, R. M. 2003. The stratigraphical distribution and extinctions of Permian trilobites. Special Papers in Palaeontology 70, 377–97.Google Scholar
Owens, R. M. & Hahn, G. 1993. Biogeography of Carboniferous and Permian trilobites. Geologica et Palaeontologica 27, 165–80.Google Scholar
Partoazar, H. 2002. Permian-Triassic boundary conodonts from the Jolfa-Abadeh Belt along the Northwest and Central Iran. Permophiles 41, 32–40.Google Scholar
Qian, Y. 1977. Upper Permian trilobites from Qinglong and Anshun of Guizhou. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 16, 279–86 (in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Rigby, J. K., Senowbari-Daryan, B. & Hamedani, A. 2005. First occurrence of wewokellid sponges (Calcarea, Heteractinida) from the Permian of central Iran. Facies 51, 516–21.Google Scholar
Roemer, F. 1880. Über eine Kohlenkalk fauna der Westküste von Sumatra. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 27, 1–11.Google Scholar
Ruban, D. A. 2007 a. Major Paleozoic-Mesozoic unconformities in the Greater Caucasus and their tectonic re-interpretation: a synthesis. GeoActa 6, 91–102.Google Scholar
Ruban, D. A. 2007 b. Paleozoic palaeogeographic frameworks of the Greater Caucasus, a large Gondwana-derived terrane: consequences from the new tectonic model. Natura Nascosta 34, 16–27.Google Scholar
Ruban, D. A., Al-Husseini, M. I. & Iwasaki, Y. 2007. Review of Middle East Paleozoic plate tectonics. GeoArabia 12, 35–56.Google Scholar
Sakagami, S. 1980. Permian Ectoprocta (Bryozoa) from the Abadeh region, Central Iran. Transactions and Proceedings of the Palaeontological Society of Japan, New Series 118, 269–89.Google Scholar
Senowbari-Daryan, B. & Hamedani, A. 2002. First report of the occurrence of Amblysiphonella (thalamid sponge) in Permian of Iran and description of A. iranica n. sp. from central Iran. Revue de Paléobiologie 21, 795–801.Google Scholar
Shen, S. Z., Archbold, N. W. & Shi, G. R. 2000. Changhsingian (Late Permian) brachiopod palaeobiogeography. Historical Biology 15, 121–34.Google Scholar
Shen, S. Z. & Shi, G. R. 2000. Wuchiapingian (early Lopingian, Permian) global brachiopod palaeobiogeography: a quantitative approach. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 162, 299–318.Google Scholar
Shen, S. Z. & Shi, G. R. 2004. Capitanian (Late Guadalupian, Permian) global brachiopod palaeobiogeography and latitudinal diversity pattern. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 208, 235–62.Google Scholar
Stampfli, G. M. & Borel, G. D. 2002. A plate tectonic model for the Paleozoic and Mesozoic constrained by dynamic plate boundaries and restored synthetic oceanic isochrons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 196, 17–33.Google Scholar
Taraz, H. 1971. Uppermost Permian and Permo-Triassic transition beds in Central Iran. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 55, 1280–94.Google Scholar
Taraz, H., Golshani, F., Nakazawa, K., Shimizu, D., Bando, Y., Ishii, K.-I., Murata, M., Okimura, Y., Sakagami, S., Nakamura, K. & Tokuoka, T. 1981. The Permian and the Lower Triassic systems in Abadeh region, central Iran. Memoirs of the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Series Geology Mineralogy 47, 61–133.Google Scholar
Théry, J. M., Vachard, D. & Dransart, E. 2007. Late Permian limestones and the Permian-Triassic boundary: new biostratigraphic, paleobiogeographical and geochemical data in Caucasus and eastern Europe. In Palaeozoic Reefs and Bioaccumulations: Climatic and Evolutionary Controls (eds Álvaro, J. J., Aretz, M., Boulvain, F., Munnecke, A., Vachard, D. & Vennin, E.), pp. 255–74. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 275.Google Scholar
Torsvik, T. H. & Cocks, L. R. M. 2004. Earth geography from 400 to 250 Ma: a palaeomagnetic, faunal and facies review. Journal of the Geological Society, London 161, 555–72.Google Scholar
Weber, V. N. 1939. Trilobita. In The Atlas of the Leading Forms of Fossil Faunas of USSR, Volume 6, Permian (ed. Lisharew, B.), pp. 196–200. Saint-Petersburg: The Central Geological and Prospecting Institute (in Russian).Google Scholar
Weber, V. N. 1944. Trilobites of the Carboniferous and Permian system of the USSR. Fascicule II. Permian trilobites. Palaeontology of the USSR Monographs 71, 1–32 (in Russian, with abridged version in English).Google Scholar
Wendt, J., Kaufmann, B., Belka, Z., Farsan, N. & Karimi Bavandpur, A. 2002. Devonian/Lower Carboniferous stratigraphy, facies patterns and palaeogeography of Iran. Part I. Southeastern Iran. Acta Geologica Polonica 52, 129–68.Google Scholar
Wendt, J., Kaufmann, B., Belka, Z., Farsan, N. & Karimi Bavandpur, A. 2005. Devonian/Lower Carboniferous stratigraphy, facies patterns and palaeogeography of Iran. Part II. Northern and central Iran. Acta Geologica Polonica 55, 31–97.Google Scholar
Westermann, G. E. G. 2000. Biochore classification and nomenclature in paleobiogeography: an attempt at order. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 158, 1–13.Google Scholar
Whittington, H. B., Chatterton, B. D. E., Speyer, S. E., Fortey, R. A., Owens, R. M., Chang, W. T., Dean, R. A., Jell, P. A., Laurie, J. R., Palmer, A. R., Repina, L. N., Rushton, A. W. A., Shergold, J. H., Clarkson, E. N. K., Wilmot, N. V. & Kelly, S. R. A. 1997. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part O, Arthropoda 1, Trilobita, Revised (ed. Kaesler, R. L.). Boulder: Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Wu, W. S. & Zhao, J. M. 1983. Late Permian corals from Zhejiang, Guangxi and Sichuan Provinces. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica 6, 271–84 (in Chinese with English summary).Google Scholar
Yazdi, M. 1999. Late Devonian-Carboniferous conodonts from eastern Iran. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigraphia 105, 167–200.Google Scholar
Yin, K. 1978. Trilobita. In Atlas of Southwest Chinese Fossils in Kueichou District. 2: Carboniferous–Quaternary (ed. Bureau of Geology of Guizhou Province), pp. 440–5, 628–9. Beijing: Geological Publishing House (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Zanchi, A., Zanchetta, S., Garzanti, E., Balini, M., Berra, F., Mattei, M. & Muttoni, G. 2009. The Cimmerian evolution of the Nakhlak-Anarak area, Central Iran, and its bearing for the reconstruction of the history of the Eurasian margin. In South Caspian to Central Iran Basins (eds Brunet, M.-F., Wilmsen, M. & Granath, J. W.), pp. 261–86. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 312.Google Scholar
Ziegler, A. M., Hulver, M. L. & Roeley, D. B. 1997. Permian world topography and climate. In Late Glacial and Postglacial Environmental Changes – Quaternary, Carboniferous–Permian and Proterozoic (ed. Martini, I. P.), pp. 111–46. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar