Magnetostratigraphy of the Orce region (Baza Basin), SE Spain: New chronologies for Early Pleistocene faunas and hominid occupation sites

The Orce fossil quarries, in the Baza Basin of southeastern Spain, are a rich source of Early Pleistocene Palaeolithic tools and vertebrate remains. Geologic fieldwork during the last decade has placed these fossiliferous strata within the context of a thick Neogene continental sequence. Detailed lithostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic results indicate that at least the upper 60 m of this sequence are of Early Pleistocene age. The quarried strata (Venta Micena, Barranco León and Fuentenueva-3) are from a narrow time span (<100 ka) starting before 1.3 Ma. A new, lower excavation at ∼1.5 Ma (Fuentenueva-1 quarry) has a distinctly older fauna. These Orce strata provide a high resolution, Early Pleistocene record of grassland fauna that shows the end of Mammal Neogene fauna (MN17) in the Fuentenueva-1 site (with Gazella borbonica, Equus stenonis) and the beginning of more characteristic Pleistocene fauna in the Venta Micena site (with Hippopotamus antiquus, Equus granatensis, Homo sp.). Thus far, no evidence for human occupation has been found within the earlier Fuentenueva-1 quarry, although many of the same terminal MN17 species have been found with hominids on the other side of Europe at the Dmanisi site (earliest Pleistocene) in the Republic of Georgia.     

Mammoths and mylodonts: Exotic species from two different continents in North American Pleistocene faunas

Throughout the Cenozoic, the North American mammalian fauna has been enriched by the appearance of new taxa originating on different continents. During most of the Tertiary, the primary source area of these new taxa was Eurasia with dispersal across some version of the Bering Land Bridge. In the late Pliocene (Blancan) ca. 2.5 mya, the creation of the Panamanian Land Bridge permitted the northward dispersal of species of South American origin including ground sloths. One of these sloths was “Glossotherium” chapadmalense, which in turn gave rise to the Pleistocene species Paramylodon harlani. Mammoths first appear in North America at the beginning of the Irvingtonian ca. 1.9 mya. Despite originating on two different continents, the two species are often found together in North American Pleistocene faunas and shared a common habitat. Both of these lineages are commonly interpreted as grazers, indicative of open grassland habitat, and both of these exotic species shared this habitat with North American endemic species such as horses, also interpreted as grazers. Despite their association in North American faunas, mammoths did not disperse into South America and mylodont sloths were unable to disperse into Eurasia. This suggests there were some aspects of their ecology they did not have in common and there existed a limited zone of conditions that permitted them to share common habitat. There is no evidence that the appearance of either species in North America resulted in the extinction of any native species. The question is how these different species, immigrants and endemics, were able to avoid competition, coexist, and become integrated into a single fauna, thus enriching the overall North American Pleistocene fauna.     

Late Pleistocene vegetation of Kings Canyon,Sierra Nevada,California

Seven packrat midden samples make possible a comparison between the modern and late Pleistocene vegetation in Kings Canyon on the western side of the southern Sierra Nevada. One modern sample contains macrofossils and pollen derived from the present-day oak-chaparral vegetation. Macrofossils from the six late Pleistocene samples record a mixed coniferous forest dominated by the xerophytic conifers Juniperus occidentalis, Pinus cf. ponderosa, and P. monophylla. The pollen spectra of these Pleistocene middens are dominated by Pinus sp., Taxodiaceae-Cupressaceae-Taxaceae (TCT), and Artemisia sp. Mesophytic conifers are represented by low macrofossil concentrations. Sequoiadendron giganteum is represented by a few pollen grains in the full glacial. Edaphic control and snow dispersal are the most likely causes of these mixed assemblages.The dominant macrofossils record a more xeric plant community than those that now occur on similar substrates at higher elevations or latitudes in the Sierra Nevada. These assemblages suggest that late Wisconsin climates were cold with mean annual precipitation not necessarily greater than modern values. This conclusion supports a model of low summer ablation allowing for the persistence of the glaciers at higher elevations during the late Wisconsin. The records in these middens also suggest that S. giganteum grew at lower elevations along the western side of the range and that P. monophylla was more widely distributed in cismontane California during the Pleistocene.     

The last 30,000 years of faunal history within the Grand Canyon, Arizona

The vertebrate fauna of the last 30,000 radiocarbon years in the Grand Canyon is reviewed. Faunas accompanied with 92 ¹⁴C dates have been analyzed from nine cave sites (four systematically excavated) and 50 packrat middens. Reasonably precise chronological and environmental data of late Pleistocene and Holocene age were obtained through dung studies in Rampart, Muav, and Stanton's Caves; from the numerous packrat middens; and from a ringtail refuse deposit in Vulture Cave. The desert tortoise, 8 species of lizards, 12 species of snakes, 68 species of birds, and 33 species of mammals are identified. Extinct animals include the avian carrion feeder, Teratornis merriami, and the mammalian herbivores, Oreamnos harringtoni, Camelops cf. hesternus, Equus sp., and Nothrotheriops shastense. There is no apparent abrupt end to the late Pleistocene as observed in the Grand Canyon fossil faunal or floral record. Animal and plant taxa of the Grand Canyon responded individually to the changes in climate of the last 30,000 yr. Both animal and plant fossil assemblages indicate that a pre-full glacial, a full glacial, and a late glacial woodland community with many less dominant desert taxa were slowly replaced by a Holocene desert community. All woodland taxa were absent from the lower elevations of the Grand Canyon by 8500 yr B.P.     

Age of Middle Pleistocene fauna and Lower Palaeolithic industries from Kent's Cavern,Devon

Kent's Cavern has long been known as potentially among the oldest Palaeolithic sites in the country, with the basal Breccia deposit containing a sparse Lower Palaeolithic industry. The sediment consists of a chaotic clayey conglomerate emplaced as a series of debris flows, which entered the cave via blocked entrances at its southwest end. The Breccia contains a fauna dominated by the bear Ursus deningeri, with lion Felis leo and the voles Arvicola cantiana and Microtus oeconomus, establishing a late Cromerian age for the deposit. The artefacts comprise an industry of crudely manufactured handaxes and flakes, and show damage suggesting that they were brought into the cave by the debris flows, and may thus predate the sediment and fauna. We demonstrate an age of >340 ka for the Breccia using two independant dating methods, consistent with existing models of the age of the British Middle Pleistocene sequence.     

Dienerian (Early Triassic) ammonoids from the Candelaria Hills (Nevada, USA) and their significance for palaeobiogeography and palaeoceanography

A well-preserved ammonoid fauna of Early Dienerian age has long been known from the lower portion of the Candelaria Formation in the old Candelaria silver mining district in Mineral and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada, but for a number of reasons, this fauna has never been studied in detail nor illustrated. Previous authors assigned this ammonoid fauna to the Early Dienerian Proptychites candidus Zone of Canada. In reality, it more closely resembles the Tethyan faunas than the higher palaeolatitude Canadian faunas, thus indicating the presence of some degree of equatorial faunal exchange between opposite sides of the Panthalassic Ocean during Early Dienerian time. It also indicates the onset of a provincialism, which contrasts with the cosmopolitan Griesbachian faunas. A rigorous taxonomic analysis of the Candelaria fauna allows us to differentiate the following ten species, which include two new species and one new genus (Mullericeras nov. gen.) belonging to the new family Mullericeratidae: Ambites lilangensis (Krafft, 1909), Ambites aff. radiatus (Brühwiler, Brayard, Bucher and Guodun, 2008), Ussuridiscus sp. indet., ??Koninckites?? aff. kraffti Spath, 1934, Mullericeras spitiense (Krafft, 1909), Mullericeras fergusoni nov. sp., Mullericeras sp. indet., Proptychites haydeni (Krafft, 1909), Proptychites pagei nov. sp., Vavilovites sp. indet. and Parahedenstroemia kiparisovae Shigeta and Zakharov, 2009. This Early Dienerian fauna correlates with the Ambites fauna known from the base of the Ceratite Marls in the Salt Range and from the base of the ??Meekoceras?? beds in Spiti (northern Gondwanian margin). The fauna also permits the precise dating of a shelfal anoxic episode on the equatorial North American margin. This anoxic event correlates in time with similar palaeoceanographic changes in the southern Tethys, which indicates that the Early Triassic biotic recovery was at least partly shaped by such discrete, short events rather than by pervasive and lingering adverse environmental conditions.     

Neoselachians and Chimaeriformes (Chondrichthyes) from the latest Cretaceous–Paleogene of Sierra Baguales,southernmost Chile. Chronostratigraphic,paleobiogeographic and paleoenvironmental implications

This paper discusses a well-represented fossil record of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) from southern South America. The recovered samples allow the recognition of three assemblages with chronostratigraphic and paleogeographic value: i) typical Maastrichtian sharks and rays with affinities to eastern Pacific fauna, including the taxa Ischyrhiza chilensis, Serratolamna serrata, Centrophoroides sp. associated to Carcharias sp., and Dasyatidae indet.; ii) a scarce reworked assemblage of Paleocene–Early Eocene age including the taxa Otodus obliquus and Megascyliorhinus cooperi; iii) a rich assemblage with reworked taxa of Early to Middle Eocene age, together with autochthonous deposited Middle to Late Eocene taxa with close affinities to paleoichthyofaunas recovered from the North Atlantic, represented by Carcharias ‘hopei’, Odontaspis winkleri, Carcharoides catticus, Macrorhizodus praecursor, Carcharocles auriculatus, Striatolamia sp., Striatolamia macrota, Hexanchus agassizi, Notorhynchus sp., Myliobatis sp., Abdounia sp., Pristiophorus sp., Squatina sp., cf. Rhizoprionodon sp., Ischyodus sp., and one new species, Jaekelotodus bagualensis sp. nov. The studied samples include for the first time taxa with well established chronostratigraphic resolutions as well as taphonomic information that help clarifying the age of the fossil-bearing units. In addition, they provide relevant information about the evolution of the Magallanes (=Austral) Basin from the Upper Cretaceous to the Paleogene, suggesting a probable connection with the Quiriquina Basin of south-central Chile during the latest Cretaceous. Finally, the studied assemblages indicate a latitudinal pattern of distribution that provides valuable data on the environmental evolution and temperature of southern South America during the Paleogene.     

黑龙江青冈晚更新世哺乳动物化石

本文记述的8种哺乳动物化石:Mammuthus primigenius,Equus hemionus,Equus sp.,Coelodonta antiquitatis,Megaloceros ordosianus,Gazella sp.,Bison exiguus,Bosprimigenius?属东北“披毛犀—猛犸象动物群”的成员,时代为晚更新世。对三门马的地层分布时代进行了讨论,认为有可能到中更新世末期甚至晚更新世早期。此外还介绍了大角鹿属各种的特征,并指出了“披毛犀一猛犸象动物群”概念的不恰当之处。     

Proneofiber, a new genus of vole (Cricetidae: Rodentia) from the Pleistocene Seymour Formation of Texas,and its evolutionary and stratigraphic significance

A new genus and species of a microtine rodent, Proneofiber guildayi, is named on the basis of rooted teeth with cement from the warm Gilliland local fauna, Seymour Formation of Pleistocene age, Knox County, Texas. Proneofiber guildayi is considered to be ancestral to Neofiber, the round-tailed water rat, now living in the extreme southeastern United States. The presence of Pleistocene faunas prior to the first continental glaciation and the existence of three Pearlette-like volcanic ashes in the Plains Region suggest a revision of the age assignment of Pleistocene deposits from the nonglaciated region.     

Late Pliocene Glyptodontinae (Xenarthra,Cingulata, Glyptodontidae) of South and North America: Morphology and paleobiogeographical implications in the GABI

Knowledge of the main aspects of the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) concerning the glyptodontine Glyptodontidae (Xenarthra) is very scarce. A bidirectional dispersal process was recently proposed for this clade, with the presence of the North American genus Glyptotherium Osborn recognized in latest Pleistocene sediments of northern South America (Venezuela and Brazil). However, the earliest stages of this paleobiogeographical process remain poorly understood, mainly because of the limited fossil record on this clade in late Pliocene sediments. The goals of this contribution are: a) to present and describe the first record of a glyptodontine glyptodontid from the late Pliocene of northern South America, tentatively assigned to a new species of Boreostemma Carlini et al. (Boreostemma? sp. nov); and b) to analyze its paleobiogeographical implications with respect to the GABI. This new material was recovered from the San Gregorio Formation (late Pliocene, prior the GABI) in northern Venezuela, where it is represented by several osteoderms of the dorsal carapace. A comparison among the three known late Pliocene glyptodontine glyptodontids of a) southern South America (Paraglyptodon), b) northern South America (Boreostemma), and c) southern North America ("Glyptotherium"), reveals a series of shared characters between (b) and (c), not present in (a). The most important of these shared characters in (b) and (c) are: all the osteoderms present a great development of the central figure, which is always larger than the peripherals; the sulcus that delimits the central and peripheral figures is narrower and shallower; and all the osteoderms present are relatively thin. This evidence suggests that the lineage of Glyptodontinae which participated in the GABI and subsequently diversified in North America originated in northern South America. Moreover, the evident morphological differences between these glyptodontines with respect to the southern South American forms show a significant separation of both lineages since at least latest Miocene-early Pliocene.     

Late Quaternary environments and biogeography in the Great Basin

Plant and animal remains found in packrat (Neotoma spp.) middens and cave fill from the eastern and southern Great Basin region reveal the presence of subalpine conifers and boreal mammals at relatively low elevations during the Late Wisconsin. Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and bristlecone pine (P. longaeva) were important in the late Pleistocene plant communities throughout this region. Spruce (Picea cf. engelmannii) and common juniper (Juniperus communis) were present in some of the more northerly localities, and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and white fir (Abies concolor) were present in southern and eastern localities. Single needle pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla), common across this region today, was apparently not present north of the Sheep Range of southern Nevada during the Late Wisconsin. Pikas (Ochotona cf. princeps), small boreal mammals present in only a few Great Basin mountain ranges today, were common throughout the region. Heather voles (Phenacomys cf. intermedius) have been found in two cave fill deposits in Nevada, though they are unknown in the Great Basin today. Limber and bristlecone pines are generally restricted to rocky substrates in modern subalpine habitats in the Great Basin, and this may also have been the case when these plants grew at lower elevations during the Late Wisconsin. Subalpine conifers were present on the rock outcrops sampled by the packrat middens, but shrub communities, perhaps dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), may have been present on alluvial valley-bottom substrates. Forested habitats would thus have been isolated habitat islands, as they are today. Boreal small mammals, including pikas and heather voles, were able to colonize the Great Basin mountain ranges during the late Pleistocene. We suggest that these mammals were able to survive in the intervening valley-bottoms under a cool-summer climatic regime, and that continuous forest or woodland corridors were not necessary for migration.     

Mammoth and Mastodon collagen sequences; survival and utility

Near-complete collagen (I) sequences are proposed for elephantid and mammutid taxa, based upon available African elephant genomic data and supported with LC-MALDI-MS/MS and LC-ESI-MS/MS analyses of collagen digests from proboscidean bone. Collagen sequence coverage was investigated from several specimens of two extinct mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii and Mammuthus primigenius), the extinct American mastodon (Mammut americanum), the extinct straight-tusked elephant (Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus) and extant Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants and compared between the two ionization techniques used. Two suspected mammoth fossils from the British Middle Pleistocene (Cromerian) deposits of the West Runton Forest Bed were analysed to investigate the potential use of peptide mass spectrometry for fossil identification. Despite the age of the fossils, sufficient peptides were obtained to identify these as elephantid, and sufficient sequence variation to discriminate elephantid and mammutid collagen (I). In-depth LC-MS analyses further failed to identify a peptide that could be used to reliably distinguish between the three genera of elephantids (Elephas, Loxodonta and Mammuthus), an observation consistent with predicted amino acid substitution rates between these species.     

Middle Miocene vertebrates from the Amazonian Madre de Dios Subandean Zone,Perú

A new middle Miocene vertebrate fauna from Peruvian Amazonia is described. It yields the marsupials Sipalocyon sp. (Hathliacynidae) and Marmosa (Micoureus) cf. laventica (Didelphidae), as well as an unidentified glyptodontine xenarthran and the rodents Guiomys sp. (Caviidae), “Scleromys” sp., cf. quadrangulatus-schurmanni-colombianus (Dinomyidae), an unidentified acaremyid, and cf. Microsteiromys sp. (Erethizontidae). Apatite Fission Track provides a detrital age (17.1 ± 2.4 Ma) for the locality, slightly older than its inferred biochronological age (Colloncuran-early Laventan South American Land Mammal Ages: ∼15.6–13.0 Ma). Put together, both the mammalian assemblage and lithology of the fossil-bearing level point to a mixture of tropical rainforest environment and more open habitats under a monsoonal-like tropical climate. The fully fluvial origin of the concerned sedimentary sequence suggests that the Amazonian Madre de Dios Subandean Zone was not part of the Pebas mega-wetland System by middle Miocene times. This new assemblage seems to reveal a previously undocumented “spatiotemporal transition” between the late early Miocene assemblages from high latitudes (Patagonia and Southern Chile) and the late middle Miocene faunas of low latitudes (Colombia, Perú, Venezuela, and ?Brazil).     

Canyon Creek: A late Pleistocene vertebrate locality in interior Alaska

The Canyon Creek vertebrate-fossil locality is an extensive road cut near Fairbanks that exposes sediments that range in age from early Wisconsin to late Holocene. Tanana River gravel at the base of the section evidently formed during the Delta Glaciation of the north-central Alaska Range. Younger layers and lenses of fluvial sand are interbedded with arkosic gravel from Canyon Creek that contains tephra as well as fossil bones of an interstadial fauna about 40,000 years old. Solifluction deposits containing ventifacts, wedge casts, and rodent burrows formed during a subsequent period of periglacial activity that took place during the maximum phase of Donnelly Glaciation about 25,000–17,000 years ago. Overlying sheets of eolian sand are separated by a 9500-year-old paleosol that may correlate with a phase of early Holocene spruce expansion through central Alaska. The Pleistocene fauna from Canyon Creek consists of rodents (indicated by burrows), Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth), Equus lambei (Yukon wild ass), Camelops hesternus (western camel), Bison sp. cf. B. crassicornis (large-horned bison), Ovis sp. cf.O. dalli (mountain sheep), Canis sp. cf. C. lupus (wolf), Lepus sp. cf. L. othus or L. arcticus (tundra hare), and Rangifer sp. (caribou). This assemblage suggests an open landscape in which trees and tall shrubs were either absent or confined to sheltered and moist sites. Camelops evidently was present in eastern Beringia during the middle Wisconsin interstadial interval but may have disappeared during the following glacial episode. The stratigraphic section at Canyon Creek appears to demonstrate that the Delta Glaciation of the north-central Alaska Range is at least in part of early Wisconsin age and was separated from the succeeding Donnelly Glaciation by an interstadial rather than interglacial episode.     

New Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) faunas from the Sultanate of Oman

New trilobite material and the first graptolites from outcrop are described from the Am5 member of the Amdeh Formation near Al Fleij in northeast Oman. The sediments in which these faunas occur are interpreted as distal-shelf deposits with storm beds packed with brachiopods and orthoconic nautiloids. The deposits and its faunas are considered of late Darriwilian age and younger than the shallower-water Am5 deposits known from other outcrops. No palynomorphs could be recovered to confirm this due to the increased burial temperature the Al Fleij area has experienced.The trilobites are of considerable palaeo-biogeographic interest as few faunas of this age are known from the Arabian Plate, though their preservation precludes the establishment of new species. They include Isabelinia aff. glabrata, Liomegalaspides sp., Neseuretus tristani, Neseuretinus sp. and the deeper-water forms, Cyclopyge cf. C. bohemica, Arthrorhachis sp. and Brachypleura sp. The graptolites are pendent Didymograptus spp. of later Darriwilian type.Rare elements of the conodonts Nordiora, Amorphognathus and Microzarkodina have been recovered from shell beds that occur interbedded with the faunas. They too indicate a late Darriwilian age and differ from richer, restricted, shallow-water faunas known from the Am5 at other locations, and the more cosmopolitan shelf fauna from the Ayim Member of the Rann Formation of the United Arab Emirates.A coarser, 80 m-thick, terrestrial sequence containing igneous pebbles, included in the Am5 in the 1980s, is shown from the occurrence of fossil plants to be of Permian age and probably equivalent to the Basal Saiq Clastics of Jabal al Akhdar.     

Terrestrial environments during MIS 11: evidence from the Palaeolithic site at West Stow,Suffolk, UK

Multidisciplinary investigations of the sequence at Beeches Pit, West Stow (Suffolk, UK), have a direct bearing the age of the Hoxnian Interglacial and its correlation with the continental Holsteinian and with the global marine record. At this site, glacial deposits (till and outwash gravels) referable to the Anglian Lowestoft Formation fill a subglacial channel cut in Chalk bedrock. Above these glacial deposits a series of interglacial sediments occurs, consisting of limnic, tufaceous and colluvial silts, lacking pollen but rich in shells, ostracods and vertebrates. Lower Palaeolithic flint artefacts of Acheulian character have also been recovered, including refitting examples. Charred material is abundant at certain horizons and many of the bones have been burned. Several discrete areas of burnt sediment are interpreted as hearths. The molluscan fauna comprises some 78 taxa and includes species of considerable zoogeographical and biostratigraphical importance. The land snail assemblage from the tufa consists of woodland taxa with no modern analogue, including species that are either extinct (e.g. Zonitoides sepultus) or which no longer live in Britain (e.g. Platyla polita, P. similis, Neniatlanta pauli). This is also the type locality of Retinella (Lyrodiscus) skertchlyi, which belongs to a subgenus of zonitid land snail now living only on the Canary Islands. There are indications from this fauna (‘the Lyrodiscus biome’) that the climate was wetter and perhaps warmer than the present day. The vertebrate fauna is also noteworthy with species of open habitats, such as rabbit (Oryctolagus cf. cuniculus), and of closed forest, such as squirrel (Sciurus sp.) and garden dormouse (Eliomys quercinus) present at different times. The occurrence of southern thermophiles, such as Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus), indicates temperatures warmer than those of eastern England today. The upper levels include much material reworked from the interglacial sediments, although there is clear faunal evidence for climatic deterioration. Both the molluscan and vertebrate faunas suggest correlation of the interglacial sediments with the Hoxnian. Uranium series dates from the tufa (∼455 ka BP), TL dates from burnt flints (414±30 ka BP) and a range of amino acid racemization data all support correlation of this interglacial with MIS 11. However, four OSL dates from sand beneath the interglacial sequence yield a mean age of 261±31 ka BP, far younger than all other age determinations and far younger than implied by the biostratigraphy. Archaeologically the site is unusual in showing prolonged human occupation within closed deciduous forest and evidence for controlled use of fire in a Lower Palaeolithic context. Biostratigraphical correlations with other Lower Palaeolithic sites support the suggestion that Acheulian and Clactonian industries both occurred in southern Britain during the same substage of the Hoxnian, although not necessarily at precisely the same time. The characteristics of the MIS 11 interglacial in Britain are discussed in the light of evidence from Beeches Pit and elsewhere.     

A neoselachian shark fauna from the Late Cretaceous of Senegal

A selachian fauna is described for the first time from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of Senegal. So far, the Campanian Paki Formation has only yielded a single tooth of Rhombodus sp. whereas the Cap de Naze Formation has yielded a more diverse fauna including juvenile Cretalamna cf. Cretalamna biauriculata, Serratolamna serrata, Carcharias cf. Carcharias heathi, ?Carcharias sp., Squalicorax pristodontus, Schizorhiza stromeri, Parapaleobates sp., Rhombodus binkhorsti and Rhombodus andriesi. Teeth of juvenile Cretalamna largely dominate the assemblage. Such an assemblage confirms a Late Maastrichtian age for the unit 3 in the Cap de Naze Formation. The assemblage, although composed of cosmopolitan taxa, is similar to the contemporaneous selachian assemblage from the phosphates of Morocco.     

Peri-Gondwana Late Early–Middle Cambrian trilobites from the Kuhbanan Formation in Dahu section,Kerman Province,Iran

Outcropped of the Kuhbanan Formation at Dahu, near Zarand, about 63 km north of Kerman, Iran contains peri-Gondwana trilobites. In this study, 185 trilobite samples including six species and genera were identified and described from Dahu section. This trilobite’s assemblage including Redlichia noetlingi, Redlichia sp., Kermanella kuhbananensis, Kermanella lata lata, Kermanella lata minuta, Iranoleesia pisiformis, and Iranaspis sp. based on occurrence of the trilobite fauna a late Early to Middle Cambrian (Series 2–3) is suggested for this strata. These trilobite fauna help confirm conclusions from recent geological studies that place the Kerman Basin of Iran during the Cambrian.     

Palaeoecology of well-preserved coral communities in a siliciclastic environment from the Late Pleistocene (MIS 7), Kish Island, Persian Gulf (Iran): the development of low-relief reef frameworks (biostromes) in increasingly restricted environments

Major changes in community structure and depositional relief of high-latitude coral communities in the southern Persian Gulf between marine isotope stage (MIS) 7 and the present day suggest that the area has become increasingly restricted. Corals and bivalves from outcrops on Kish Island, Iran, were identified in order to interpret the Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental setting. U/Th disequilibrium dating was used to constrain the ages of the stratigraphic units. During MIS 7, two coral-bearing sequences were deposited on what is now Kish Island. The lower sequence is dated as MIS 7.5 and changes laterally from an assemblage dominated by Cyphastrea sp. and Platygyra daedalea in the west to one characterized by branching Montipora in the east. By contrast, the upper sequence, dated as MIS 7.1, transitions from an assemblage dominated by platy Montipora in the west to a diverse assemblage of Platygyra and other faviids in the east. The assemblages of both sequences are within a marl matrix and bounded by thin lithified mollusc-rich layers. Corals and bivalves indicate that the sequences were deposited on gentle slopes in sheltered environments less than 20 m deep. The MIS 7 deposits may be classified as coral carpets or biostromes that developed a low-relief framework. During MIS 5, coral communities were no longer framework building and are now limited to an Acropora-rich layer of coral rubble that covers large parts of the island, and two small incipient reefs with sparse faviids. Similarities between the MIS 5 and modern nearshore coral communities suggest that the environmental conditions during MIS 5 were comparable to those of today. The late Pleistocene coral carpets and non-framework coral communities of the southern Persian Gulf may serve as models for coral biostromes in the fossil record, which formed under restricted environmental conditions such as elevated terrigenous input, high turbidity, and strong seasonal changes in temperature and/or salinity.