A New Calcareous Nannofossil Record from the Lower Jurassic of Kermanshah, Western Iran: Implications for Biostratigraphy and Evolutionary Reconstructions

Abstract

Calcareous nannofossils are used here for the first time in order to establish a precise biostratigraphic framework for the Kermanshah Radiolarite Formation, an outcropping in Western Iran. The new data presented here challenge the previous tentative age interpretations (Pliensbachian to early Toarcian) based upon radiolarians. Calcareous nannofossil assemblages and events unequivocally indicated that the pelagic limestones and marls are late Sinemurian in age (NJT 3b nannofossil subzone), and that these are thrusted over shales and cherts dated as uppermost Sinemurian (NJT 3b-c nannofossil subzone) and lowermost Pliensbachian (NJT 4 nannofossil zone). This result leads not only to reconsideration of the age of the radiolarite formations, which are widespread in the Zagros orogenic system, but also a better understanding of the stratigraphic relationships between the various lithological units known in the area. Besides these new stratigraphic inferences, the calcareous nannofossil assemblages of the uppermost Sinemurian–lowermost Pliensbachian successions revealed the common presence of new morphologies of the Mitrolithus genus, never described before. These findings allow for the description of three new species, M. montgolfieri, M. pseudonannoconus, and M. tethysiensis, and reveal the existence of homeomorphy between the spine structure of conical Lower Jurassic coccoliths and the widespread Cretaceous nannoconids.