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Iranella inopinata Gollestaneh 1965, a puzzling dasycladalean alga from the Lower Cretaceous shallow carbonate shelf deposits of the Zagros fold-thrust belt, SW Iran

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Abstract

Iranella inopinata gen. and sp. nov. was first described in the unpublished thesis of Gollestaneh (1965), as an incertae sedis from the Lower Cretaceous carbonate rocks of the Zagros fold-thrust belt. More recently, the taxon was formally, although provisionally described by Hosseini and Conrad (Geol Croat 61:215–237, 2008), as a dasycladalean alga named Salpingoporella? inopinata. Here, based on the interpretation of quite-abundant although scattered fragments, it is assigned to Iranella, a large-sized, stalked, and capitulum-shaped new genus of Dasycladales. The lower, stalked part of the thallus is cylindrical, strongly calcified, with first-order laterals only, while the large capitulum is only partly calcified, showing one or two orders of laterals. Traces of cysts (reproductive organs) are present in the basal stalk, either in the stipe or the laterals. Iranella inopinata looks to be endemic to the southwestern part of the Tethyan realm, in the Zagros area and also south of the Persian Gulf. In the Zagros Mts., it extends from the Berriasian to the Aptian, with an Acme Zone in the Valanginian. Sequential interpretation proves the presence of this species in the late transgressive and early highstand stages of system tracts, and reveals a low-energy, restricted, lagoonal or back-reef depositional environment, in an inner-platform setting.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the exploration management of the National Iranian Oil Company for permission to work (co-operation between the NIOC and University of Geneva) on the collected samples from the Zagros area and permit to publish this paper as a part of an ongoing PhD thesis of the first author. The constructive comments of three reviewers, namely N. Carras (Athens), R. Radoicic (Belgrade), and F. Schlagintweit (Munich) improved the manuscript substantially, which is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Géologie et Paléontologie, Faculté des sciences, Université de Genève, 13 rue des Maraichers, 1205, Genève, Switzerland

    Seyedabolfazl Hosseini & Pascal Kindler

  2. Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Company, 1st Dead End, Sheikh Bahai’ Sq., Seoul Ave., PO Box 19395-6669, Tehran, Iran

    Seyedabolfazl Hosseini

  3. 71 chemin de Planta, 1223 Cologny, Genève, Switzerland

    Marc André Conrad

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  1. Seyedabolfazl Hosseini
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  2. Marc André Conrad
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  3. Pascal Kindler
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Correspondence to Seyedabolfazl Hosseini.

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Hosseini, S., Conrad, M.A. & Kindler, P. Iranella inopinata Gollestaneh 1965, a puzzling dasycladalean alga from the Lower Cretaceous shallow carbonate shelf deposits of the Zagros fold-thrust belt, SW Iran. Facies 59, 231–245 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0324-2

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