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Lower Miocene oyster shells from the Southeast Zagros Basin (Zade Mahmud area, Iran) and their paleoecology

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Abstract

The Guri limestone Member of the Mishan Formation in the Zagros Basin consists of thick bedded limestone bearing benthic foraminifera and oyster shells. Seven species of Ostreidae and Gryphaeidae were identified as belonging to four genera (Crassostrea, Cubitostrea, Ostrea, and Hyotissa), i.e., Cubitostrea frondosa, Ostrea (Cubitostrea) dubertreti, Cubitostrea digitalina, Crassostrea gryphoides, Hyotissa virleti, Ostrea vesitata, and Ostrea plicatula. These fossils are reported for the first time from Iran. Miocene deposits in the studied area contain a rich benthic foraminiferal fauna dominated by Pseudotaberina, Meandropsina, Miogypsina, Flosculinella, Borelis, and other larger benthic foraminifera. We assign these sediments to a Burdigalian age based on Borelis melo curdica–Borelis melo melo Assemblage Zone. Paleoecological considerations also revealed that the beds were deposited in a near-shore non-agitated and shallow-water environment with moderate to low sedimentation rate. The studied oysters are located in one of more important paleogeographic settings in the world and very similar to many other Tethyan regions. The presence of these oysters suggests that the Zade Mahmud area located at margins of a sea way that connected the north and south of Zagros Basin during Burdigalian.

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Acknowledgments

In this study, we are greatly indebted to Professor Magdy El-Hedeny (Alexandria University, Egypt) for identifying some specimens and important paleoecological discussions on oyster shells. We are also grateful to Dr. N. Moinzadeh (Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman) for careful and constructive review of the manuscript and Dr. M.J. Hassani for his cooperation in sample collections and preparing photographs. We are also thankful of Dr. H. Gholamalian (Hormozgan University, Bandar Abbas) and Dr. A. Bahrami (Esfahan University, Esfahan) for their critical suggestions during the study.

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  1. Department of Geology, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

    Fatemeh Hosseinipour & Mohammad Dastanpour

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  1. Fatemeh Hosseinipour
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Correspondence to Fatemeh Hosseinipour.

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Hosseinipour, F., Dastanpour, M. Lower Miocene oyster shells from the Southeast Zagros Basin (Zade Mahmud area, Iran) and their paleoecology. Arab J Geosci 6, 1977–1989 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-011-0493-2

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