Ordovician of North Iran: New lithostratigraphy, palaeogeography and biogeographical links with South China and the Mediterranean peri-Gondwana margin

 

Authors: Ghobadi Pour M, Popov LE, Álvaro JJ, Amini A, Hairapetian V, Jahangir H

Published in: Bulletin of Geosciences, volume 97, issue 4; pages: 465 - 538; Received 16 March 2021; Accepted in revised form 4 October 2022; Online 23 December 2022

Keywords: Ordovician, lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, paleobiogeography, Iran, Gondwana,

full text (PDF, 36.8 MB)

Export to RIS

 

Abstract

The Ordovician litho- and biostratigraphic framework of Alborz, Kopet-Dagh and the East-Central Iranian blocks is outlined and significantly updated, and a broad summary of the current state of knowledge of the Ordovician deposits and faunas across Iran is documented. Four tectono-stratigraphical units (including the Alestan, Damghan, Saluk and Talesh domains) are distinguished in northern Iran. They differ considerably from one another in their lithology, facies, fossil record and completeness of their sedimentary record. A comprehensive revision of the Ordovician stratigraphy in the eastern Alborz and the Kopet-Dagh regions leads to the definition of the (i) Simeh-Kuh Formation (new), (ii) the Qumes Formation (new) and its subdivision into the Gerd-Kuh (new) and Raziabad (new) members, (iii) the Lashkarak Formation and its subdivision into the Cheshmeh-Ali (new) and Hajiabad (new) members, (iv) the Abarsaj Formation (formalised) in the Alestan Domain, (v) the Qyzlar (new) and Pelmis formations in the Saluk Domain, and (vi) the Tatavrud Formation (new) in the Talesh Domain. The Ordovician strata of the eastern Alborz and Kopet-Dagh Mountains comprise a rifting volcanism emplaced within an active horst-and-graben palaeotopography. Despite the strong Ordovician biogeographical affinities with South China and, to a lesser extent, with Mediterranean peri- Gondwana, zircon populations analysed from Cambro-Ordovician sandstones in the area point to the Arabian-Nubian Shield of the western Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa as the principal continental sources. Consequently, an open oceanic communication between the Mediterranean and the northern (Alborz) margins of Gondwana and the southern margin of South China favoured the establishment of strong biogeographical affinities between these mid-latitude basins.

References

Abbo, A., Avigad, D., Gerdes, A. & Güngör, T. 2015. Cadomian basement and Paleozoic to Triassic siliciclastics of the Taurides (Karacahisar dome, south-central Turkey): paleogeographic constraints from U–Pb–Hf in zircons. Lithos 227, 122–139.View article

Abdelsalam, M.G., Liégeois, J.P. & Stern, R.J. 2002. The Saharan Metacraton. Journal of African Earth Sciences 34, 119–136.View article

Afshar-Harb, A. 1979. The Statigraphy, Tectonics and Petroleum Geology of Kopet-Dagh Region. 316 pp. Ph.D. thesis, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, United Kingdom.

Ahmadzadeh-Heravi, M. 1983. Brachiopods and conodonts from Lower Palaeozoic sediments in southern Bojnurd. Journal of Technology and Science, Tehran University 45, 1–24. [in Farsi]

Alavi, M. & Salehi-Rad, R. 1975. Geological map of Damghan. Geological map of Iran 1:100,000 Series, Sheet 6862. Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Alavi-Naini, M. 1972. Etude géologique de la région de Djam. Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 23, 1–288.

Alavi-Naini, M., Hajian, J., Amidi, M. & Bolourchi, M.H. 1982. Geology of Takab-Sain-Qaleh. Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 50, 1–97.

Ali, K.A., Stern, R.J., Manton, W.I., Kimura, J.I., Whitehouse, M.J., Mukherjee, S.K., Johnson, P.R. & Griffin, W.R. 2010. Geochemical, U–Pb zircon, and Nd isotope investigations of the Neoproterozoic Ghawjah Metavolcanic rocks, Northwestern Saudi Arabia. Lithos 120, 379–392.View article

Álvaro, J.J., Ferretti, A., González-Gómez, C., Serpaglo, E., Tortello, M.F., Vecoli, M. & Vizcaino, D. 2007. A review of the Late Cambrian (Furongian) palaeogeography in the western Mediterranean region, NW Gondwana. Earth-Science Reviews 85, 47–81.View article

Álvaro, J.J., Ahlberg, P., Babcock, L.E., Bordonaro, O.L., Choi, D.K., Cooper, R.A., Ergative, G.K., Gap, I.W., Ghobadi Pour, M., Hughes, N.C., Jag, J.B., Koromiko, I., Laurie, J.R., Lieberman, B.S., Paterson, J.R., Peel, T.V., Popov, L.E., Rushton, A.W.A., Suchow, S.S., Tortello, M.F., Zhou, Z. & Żylińska, A. 2013. Global Cambrian trilobite palaeobiogeography assessed using parsimony analysis of endemicity, 269–292. In Harper, D.A.T. & Servais, T. (eds) Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography. Geological Society of London, Memoir 38.View article

Álvaro, J.J., Ghobadi Pour, M., Sánchez-García, T., Kebria-ee Zadeh, M.R., Hairapetian, V. & Popov, L.E. 2022. Stratigraphic and volcanic signatures of Miaolingian–Late Ordovician rift pulses in the Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 233, art.105240.View article

An, T.X., Du, G.Q., Gao, Q.Q., Chen, X.B. & Li, W.T. 1981. Ordovician conodont biostratigraphy of the Huanghuachang area of Yichang, Hubei, 105–113. In Micropalaeontological Society of China (ed.) Selected papers of the First Symposium. Science Press, Beijing. [in Chinese]

Apollonov, M.K. 1974. Ashgill trilobites from Kazakhstan. 136 pp. Almaty, Akademiya Nauk Kazakh SSR. [in Russian]

Artyushkov, E.V., Lindstrom, M. & Popov, L.E. 2000. Relative sea-level changes in Baltoscandia in the Cambrian and early Ordovician: the predominance of tectonic factors and the absence of large scale eustatic fluctuations. Tectonophysics 320, 375–407.View article

Avigad, D., Kolodner, K., McWilliams, M., Persing, H. & Weissbrod, T. 2003. Origin of northern Gondwana Cambrian sandstone revealed by detrital zircon SHRIMP dating. Geology 31, 227–230.View article

Avigad, D., Weissbrod, T., Gerdes, A., Zlatkin, O., Ireland, T.R. & Morag, N. 2015. The detrital zircon U–Pb–Hf fingerprint of the northern Arabian–Nubian Shield as reflected by a late Ediacaran arkosic wedge (Zenifim Formation; subsurface Israel). Precambrian Research 266, 1–11.View article

Bagheri, S. & Stampfli, G. 2008. The Anarak, Jandaq and Posht-e-Badam metamorphic complexes in central Iran: new geological data, relationships and tectonic implications. Tectonophysics 451, 123–155.View article

Bagnoli, G. & Stouge, S. 1997. Lower Ordovician (Billingenian–Kunda) conodont zonation and provinces based on sections from Horns Udde, North Öland, Sweden. Bolletino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana 35, 109–163.

Balaghi, E.M., Sadeghian, M., Zhai, M., Ghasemi, H. & Mohajjel, M. 2014. Zircon U–Pb ages, Hf isotopes and geochemistry of the schists, gneisses and granites in Delbar Metamorphic-Igneous Complex, SE of Shahrood (Iran): implications for Neoproterozoic geodynamic evolutions of Central Iran. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 92, 92–124.View article

Balseiro, D., Waisfeld, B.G. & Buatois, L.A. 2011. Unusual trilobite biofacies from the Lower Ordovician of the Argentine Cordillera Oriental: new insights into olenid palaeoecology. Lethaia 44, 58–75.View article

Barrande, J. 1846. Notice préliminaire sur le systeme Silurien et les Trilobites de Boheme. 97 pp. Hirschfeld, Leipzig.View article

Barrande, J. 1847. Über die Brachiopoden der silurischen Schichten von Böhmen. Naturwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen 1, 357–475.

Barrande, J. 1870. Systéme Silurien du centre de la Boheme. Part 2. 263 pp. Privately published, Prague.

Bassett, M.G., Dastanpour, M. & Popov, L.E. 1999. New data on Ordovician faunas and stratigraphy of the Kerman and Tabas regions, east-central Iran. Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Geologica 43, 483–486.

Bassett, M.G., Popov, L.E. & Holmer, L.E. 2002. Brachiopods: Cambrian–Tremadoc precursors to Ordovician radiation events, 13–23. In Crame, J.A. & Owen, A.W. (eds) Palaeobiogeography and biodiversity change: a comparison of the Ordovician and Mesozoic-Cenozoic radiations. Geological Society London, Special Publication 194.View article

Bassett, M.G., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E. & Kebria-ee Zadeh, M.R. 2013. First report of craniide brachiopods in the Palaeozoic of Iran (Pseudocrania, Ordovician); and Early–Mid Ordovician biogeography of the Craniida. Palaeontology 56, 209–216.View article

Bayet-Goll, A. & Neto de Carvalho, C. 2016. Ichnology and sedimentology of a tide-influenced delta in the Ordovician from the northeastern Alborz range of Iran (Kopet Dagh region). Lethaia 49, 327–350.View article

Bayet-Goll, A. & Neto de Carvalho, C. 2017. Sedimentological and ichnological characteristics of deltaic and non-deltaic successions of the Lower Ordovician of Shahmirzad area, Alborz Mountains of northern Iran. Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana 56, 127–151.

Bednarczyk, W. 1999. Significance of the genus Thysanotos Mickwitz, 1896 for the Ordovician stratigraphy of east-central Europe. Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Earth Sciences 47, 15–25.

Be’eri-Shlevin, Y., Katzir, Y. & Valley, J.W. 2009. Crustal evolution and recycling in a juvenile continent: oxygen isotope ratio of zircon in the northern Arabian Nubian Shield. Lithos 107, 169–184.View article

Benedetto, J.L. 2003. Early Ordovician (Arenig) brachiopods from volcaniclastic rocks of the Famatina Range, northwest Argentina. Journal of Paleontology 77, 212–242.View article

Benedetto, J.L. 2007. New Upper Cambrian–Tremadoc rhynchonelliformean brachiopods from northwestern Argentina: evolutionary trends and early diversification of plectorthoideans in the Andean Gondwana. Journal of Paleontology 81, 261–285.View article

Benedetto, J.L. & Munoz, D.F. 2017. Plectorthoid brachiopods from the Lower Ordovician of northwestern Argentina; phylogenetic relationships with Tarfaya Havlíček and the origin of heterorthids. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 15, 43–67.View article

Berberian, M., Hushmandzadeh, A. & Lotfi, M. 1973. Deformational phases and related metamorphism in the Gorgan area. 16 pp. Internal Report of the Geological Survey of Iran.

Bergeron, J. 1894 (1893). Notes paléontologiques I. Crustacés. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 21, 333–346.

Biernat, G. 1973. Ordovician brachiopods from Poland and Estonia. Palaeontologia Polonica 28, 1–116.

Blourchi, M.H. & Mehr-Parto, M. 1987. Geological map of Bojnurd. Quadrangle map of Iran 1:250,000 Series, no. J-3. Geological Survey of Iran.

Bogolepova, O.K., Kröger, B., Falahatgar, M. & Javidan, M. 2014. Middle Ordovician cephalopods from the Abarsaj area, northern Iran. GFF 136, 34–37.View article

Bouché, P.M. 1965. Chitinozoaires du Silurien s. l. du Djado (Sahara Nigérien). Revue de Micropaléontologie 8, 151–164.

Branson, E.B. & Mehl, E.B. 1933. Conodonts from the Maquoketa-Thebes (Upper Ordovician) of Missouri. The University of Missouri Studies 8, 121-131.

Brunet, M.F., Korotaev, M.V., Ershov, A.V. & Nikishin, A.M. 2003. The South Caspian Basin: a review of its evolution from subsidence modelling. Sedimentary Geology 156, 119?148.View article

Bruton, D.L., Wright, A.J. & Hamedi, M.A. 2004. Ordovician trilobites of Iran. Palaeontographica, Abteilung A 271, 111–149.View article

Buchs, D.M., Bagheri, S., Martin, L., Hermann, J. & Arculus, R. 2013. Paleozoic to Triassic ocean opening and closure preserved in Central Iran: constraints from the geochemistry of meta-igneous rocks of the Anarak area. Lithos 172, 267–287.View article

Chen, J.Y. 1974. Ordovician Nautiloidea, 138–143. In Nigpas (ed.) A Handbook of the Stratigraphy and Paleontology in Southwest China. Science Press, Beijing.

Chen, J. 1976. Advances in the Ordovician stratigraphy of North China with a brief description of nautiloid fossils. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 15, 55–74.

Clark, G.C., Davies, R., Hamzepour, B. & Jones, C.R. (with contributions by Ghorashi, M., Hamdi, B. & Navai, N.) 1975. Explanatory text of the Bandar-e-Pahlavi quadrangle map. 198 pp. Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Cocks, L.R.M. & Fortey, R.A. 1988. Lower Palaeozoic facies and faunas around Gondwana. Geological Society London, Special Publication 37, 183–200.View article

Cocks, L.R.M. & Torsvik, T.H. 2013. The dynamic evolution of the Palaeozoic geography of eastern Asia. Earth-Science Reviews 117, 40–79.View article

Cocks, L.R.M. & Zhan, R. 1998. Caradoc brachiopods from the Shan States, Burma (Myanmar). Bulletin of the Natural History Museum (Geology) 54, 109–130.

Cooper, R.A., Sadler, P.M., Hammer, O. & Gradstein, F.M. 2012. The Ordovician Period, 489–523. In Gradstein, F.M., Ogg, J.G., Schmitz, M.D. & Ogg, G.M. (eds) The Geological Timescale 2012, Volume 1. Elsevier, Amsterdam.View article

Cope, J.C.W. 1996. Early Ordovician (Arenig) bivalves from the Llangynog Inlier, South Wales. Palaeontology 39, 979–1026.

Cope, J.C.W. & Ghobadi Pour, M. 2020. An Early Ordovician (late Tremadocian) bivalve fauna from Iran. Geological Journal 55, 3258–3263.View article

Courtessole, R., Pillet, J., Vizcaino, D. & Eschard, R. 1985. Étude biostratigraphique et sédimentologique des formations arénacées de l’Arénigien du Saint-Chinianais oriental (Hérault), versant sud de la Montagne Noire (France méridionale). Mémoires de la Société d’Études Scientifiques de l’Aude 1985, 1–99.

Crespin, I. 1943. Conodonts from the Waterhouse Range, Central Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 67, 231–233.

Dastanpour, M., Evans, D.H. & Bassett, M.G. 2006. A new orthoceratoid cephalopod from the Ordovician (Caradoc) of east-central Iran. Geobios 39, 337–345.View article

Davidson, T. 1868. On the earliest forms of Brachiopoda hitherto discovered in the British Palaeozoic rocks. Geological Magazine 5, 303–316.View article

Davies, R.G., Jones, C.R., Hamzepour, B. & Clark, G.C. 1972. Geology of the Masuleh sheet 1:100,000 Northwest Iran. Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 24, 1–110.

Dean, W.T. 1971. The Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy and faunas of the Taurus Mountains near Beyshir, Turkey. II. The trilobites of the Seydieehir Formation (Ordovician). Bulletin of the British Museum, Natural History (Geology) 20, 1–21.

Dean, W.T. & Monod, O. 1990. Revised stratigraphy and relationships of Lower Palaeozoic rocks, eastern Taurus Mountains, south central Turkey. Geological Magazine 127, 333–347.View article

Derakhshi, M. 2014. Petrology, geochemistry and geodynamic model of Soltan Maidan Basaltic Complex (SMBC), north of Shahrood. 377 pp. Ph.D. thesis, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran. https://shahroodut.ac.ir/en/thesis/thesis.php?thid=QE209

Derakhshi, M. & Ghasemi, H. 2015. Soltan Maidan Complex (SMC) in the eastern Alborz structural zone, northern Iran: magmatic evidence for Paleotethys development. Arabian Journal of Geoscience 8, 849–866.View article

Derakhshi, M., Ghasemi, H. & Miao, L. 2017. Geochemistry and petrogenesis of Soltan Maidan basalts (E Alborz, Iran): Implications for asthenosphere-lithosphere interaction and rifting along the N margin of Gondwana. Chemie der Erde 77, 131–145.View article

Derakhshi, M., Ernst, R.E. & Kamo, S.L. 2022. Ordovician–Silurian volcanism in northern Iran: Implications for a new Large Igneous Province (LIP) and a robust candidate for the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Gondwana Research 107, 256–280.View article

Desmarest, A.G. 1817. Crustacés Fossiles. Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle 8, 495–519.

Dietrich, W.O. 1937. Ordoviz in Northwest-Iran. Zentralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie B, 401–404.

Dronov, A.V. 1998. Storm sedimentation in the Lower Ordovician of St. Petersburg Region. Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, Geology 3, 43–51. [in Russian]

Dronov, A.V. 1999. Sea-level oscillations and their reflections in the Lower Ordovician tempestite succession of the eastern part of the Baltic-Ladoga Glint. Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists, Geology 74, 39–47. [in Russian]

Druce, E.C. & Jones, P.J. 1971. Cambro–Ordovician conodonts from the Burke River Structural Belt, Queensland. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin 110, 1–159.

Dzik, J. 1978. Conodont biostratigraphy and paleogeographical relations of the Ordovician Mójcza Limestone (Holly Cross MTS, Poland). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 23, 51–72.

Ebbestad, J.O.R., Bassett, M.G., Dastanpour, M. & Popov, L.E. 2008. Ordovician (Caradoc) Gastropoda of the Gatkuiyeh Formation, Kerman Province, Iran. Geobios 41, 605–624.View article

Ebbestad, J.O.R., Ghobadi Pour, M., Bassett, M.G. & Popov, L. 2016. First occurrence of Lesueurilla prima (Gastropoda) from the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) of Iran. GFF 138, 510–518.View article

Egenhoff, S. & Maletz, J. 2007. Graptolites as indicators of maximum flooding surfaces in monotonous deep-water shelf successions. Palaios 22, 373-383.View article

Eichwald, E. 1840. Ueber das silurische Schichtensysstem in Esthland. 240 pp. Akademie der St. Petersburg.View article

Eisenack, A. 1931. Neue Mikrofossilien des baltischen Silurs I. Palaeontologische Zeitschrift 13, 74–118.View article

Eisenack, A. 1954. Foraminiferen aus dembaltischen Silur. Senckenbergiana Lethaia 35, 51–72.

Elles, G.L. & Wood, E.M.R. 1907. A monograph of British graptolites, part 6. Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society 61(297), 217–272.View article

Emig, C.C. 1997. Ecology of the inarticulated brachiopods, 473–495. In Kaesler R.L. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part H. Brachiopoda (Revised). Geological Society of America & University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.

Etemad-Saeed, N., Hosseini-Barzi, M., Adabi, M.H., Sadeghi, A. & Houshmandzadeh, A. 2015. Provenance of Neoproterozoic sedimentary basement of northern Iran, Kahar Formation. Journal of African Earth Sciences 111, 54–75.View article

Etemad-Saeed, N., Hosseini-Barzi, M., Adabi, M.H., Miller, N.R., Sadeghi, A., Houshmandzadeh, A. & Stockli, D.F. 2016. Evidence for ca. 560 Ma Ediacaran glaciation in the Kahar Formation, central Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. Gondwana Research 31, 164–183.View article

Evans, D.H., Ghobadi Pour, M. & Popov, L.E. 2013. Review of the Early to Mid Ordovician orthoconic cephalopods from Iran. Bulletin of Geosciences 88, 21–44.View article

Evans, D.H., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E. & Jahangir, H. 2021. First report of Mid Ordovician (Darriwilian) cephalopods from the Saluk Mountains, southern Kopet-Dagh Region, north-east Iran. Bulletin of Geosciences 96, 139–158.View article

Faryad, S.W., Collett, S., Finger, F., Sergeev, S.A., Čopjaková, R. & Siman, P. 2016. The Kabul Block (Afghanistan), a segment of the Columbia Supercontinent, with a Neoproterozoic metamorphic overprint. Gondwana Research 34, 221–240.View article

Fitton, J.G. 2007. The OIB paradox, 387–412. In Foulger, G.R. & Jurdy, D.M. (eds) Plates, plumes, and planetary processes. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 430.View article

Fortey, R.A. & Morris, S.F. 1982. The Ordovician trilobite Neseuretus from Saudi Arabia, and the palaeogeography of the Neseuretus fauna related to Gondwanaland in the earlier Ordovician. Bulletin of the British Museum, Natural History (Geology) 36, 63–75.

Fortey, R.A., Heward, A.P. & Miller, C.G. 2011. Sedimentary facies and trilobite and conodont faunas of the Ordovician Rann Formation, Ras al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. GeoArabia 16, 127–152.View article

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), 79–128. In Brunet, M.-F., Wilmsen, M. &. Granath, J.W. (eds) South Caspian to Central Iran Basins. Geological Society London, Special Publication 312.View article

Gansser, A. 1951. Geological reconnaissance in the Gorgan and surrounding areas. Unpublished Geological Report no. 18 of National Iranian Oil Company.

Gansser, A. & Huber, H. 1962. Geological observations in the Central Elburz, Iran. Schweizerische mineralogische und petrographische Mitteilungen 42, 583–630.

Garfunkel, Z. 2004. Origin of the Eastern Mediterranean basin: a reevaluation. Tectonophysics 391, 11–34.View article

Ghaderi, A., Aghanabatil, A., Hamdi, B. & Miller, J.F. 2008. Biostratigraphy of the first and second member of type section of the Shirgesht Formation in north of Tabas with special emphasis on conodonts. Scientific Quaterly Journal, Geoscience 67, 150–163. [in Farsi]

Ghaderi, A., Taheri, J., Kerachian, A. & Mousavinia, A. 2018. Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Silurian sequence at Robat-e-Qarebil stratigraphic section, based on conodonts. Scientific Quaterly Journal, Geoscience 27, 165–172. [in Farsi]

Ghasemi, H. & Kazemi, Z. 2013. Tectonic setting, character and origin of the volcanic rocks of the Abarsaj Formation (Upper Ordovician), eastern Alborz, north of Shahrud. Iranian Journal of Crystallography and Mineralogy 21, 319–330. [in Farsi]

Ghasemi, H., Kazemi, Z. & Salehian, S. 2015. Comparison of the mafic igneous rocks from the Ghelli Formation (Upper Ordovician) and the ‘Gorgan Schists’ in the Eastern Alborz Zone. Scientific Quaterly Journal, Geosciences 24, 263–276. [in Farsi]

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2001. Palynostratigraphy and Paleobiogeography of the Lower Palaeozoic sequence in the north-eastern Alborz Range (Kopet–Dagh region) of Iran, 17–35. In Goodman, D.K. & Clarke R.T. (eds) Proceedings of the 9th International Palynological Congress Houston, Texas, USA, 1996. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation.

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2003. Palynostratigraphy and palaeogeography of Lower Paleozoic strata at Kuh-e-Boghou, southwest of Kashmar city, at eastern Central Iran. Iranian International Journal of Science 4, 181–207.

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2006. Palynostratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Cambro–Ordovician strata in southwest of Shahrud city (Kuh-e-Kharbash, near Deh-Molla), Central Alborz Range, Northern Iran. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 139, 81–95.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2008. Palynostratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Upper Ordovician ‘Gorgan Schists’, Southeastern Caspian Sea, Eastern Alborz Mountain Ranges, Northern Iran. Comunicaçoes Geológicas 95, 123–155.

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2017a. Biostratigraphy of acritarchs and chitinozoans in Ordovician strata from the Fazel Abad area, southeastern Caspian Sea, Alborz Mountains, northern Iran: Stratigraphic and paleogeographic implications. Journal of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran 28, 37–57.

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2017b. Cryptospore and trilete spore assemblages from the Late Ordovician (Katian–Hirnantian) Ghelli Formation, Alborz Mountain Range, Northeastern Iran: Palaeophytogeographic and palaeoclimatic implications. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 244, 217–240.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. 2017c. Stratigraphic evidence for Hirnantian glaciation in the Alborz Mountain Ranges, northeastern Iran. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 485, 879–898.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. & Borji, S. 2018. Chronostratigrahy of acritarchs and chitinozoans from upper Ordovician strata from the Robat-e Gharabil Area, NE Alborz Mountains, Northern Khorassan Province: Stratigraphic and Paleogeographic Implications. Journal of Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran 29, 35–51.

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. & Khandabi, M. 2013. Palynostratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Lashkarak and Ghelli formations in Abarsaj area, northwest of Shahrud. Journal of Stratigraphic Researches, University of Esfahan 28, 35–58. [in Farsi]

Ghavidel-Syooki, M. & Winchester-Seeto T. 2002. Biostratigraphy and palaeogeography of Late Ordovician chitinozoans from the northeastern Alborz Range, Iran. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 118, 77–99.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Hassanzadeh, J. & Vecoli, M. 2011. Palynology and isotope geochronology of the Upper Ordovician–Silurian successions (Ghelli and Soltan-Maidan formations) in the Khoshyeilaq area, eastern Alborz Range, northern Iran; stratigraphic and palaeogeographic implications. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 164, 251–271.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Popov, L.E., Álvaro, J.J., Ghobadi Pour, M., Tolmacheva, T.Y. & Ehsani, M.H. 2014. Dapingian–lower Darriwilian (Ordovician) stratigraphic gap in the Faraghan Mountains, Zagros ranges, south-eastern Iran. Bulletin of Geosciences 89, 679–706.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Evans, D.H., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Álvaro, J.J., Rakhmonov, U., Klishevich, I.A. & Ehsani, M.H. 2015a. Late Ordovician cephalopods, tentaculitids, machaeridians and echinoderms from Kuh-e Faraghan, High Zagros, Iran. Alcheringa 39, 530–549.View article

Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Popov, L. E., Ghobadi Pour, M., Álvaro, J.J. & Ehsani, M.H. 2015b. Late Ordovician and early Silurian brachiopods from the Zagros Ranges, Iran. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 105, 159–187.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M. 2006. Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) trilobites from Simeh-Kuh, Eastern Alborz, Iran, 93–118. In Bassett, M.G. & Deisler, V.K. (eds) Studies in Palaeozoic Palaeontology. National Museum of Wales, Geological Series 25.

Ghobadi Pour, M. 2019. Ordovician trilobites from Deh-Molla, eastern Alborz, Iran. Alcheringa 43, 381–405.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M. & Popov, L.E. 2009. First report on the occurrence of Neseuretinus and Ovalocephalus in the Middle Ordovician of Iran. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54, 125–133.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M. & Turvey, S.T. 2009. Revision of some Lower to Middle Ordovician leiostegiid trilobites from Iran and China. Memoirs of the Australian Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 463–480.

Ghobadi Pour, M., Williams, M., Vannier, J., Meidla, T. & Popov, L.E. 2006. Ordovician ostracods from east-central Iran. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51, 551–560.

Ghobadi Pour, M., Vidal, M. & Hosseini-Nezhad, M. 2007a. An Early Ordovician trilobite assemblage from the Lashkarak Formation, Damghan area, northern Iran. Geobios 40, 489–500.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M., Williams, M. & Popov, L.E. 2007b. A new Middle Ordovician arthropod fauna (Trilobita, Ostracoda, Bradoriida) from the Lashkarak Formation, Eastern Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. GFF 129, 245–254.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M., Kebriaee-Zadeh, M.R. & Popov, L.E. 2011a. Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) brachiopods from the Eastern Alborz Mountains, Iran. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 60, 65–83.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M., Mohibullah, M., Williams, M., Popov, L.E. & Tolmacheva, T.Yu. 2011b. New early ostracods from the Ordovician (Tremadocian) of Iran: systematic, biogeographical and palaeoecological significance. Alcheringa 35, 517–529.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Kebria-ee Zadeh, M.R. & Baars, C. 2011c. Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) brachiopods associated with the Neseuretus biofacies, eastern Alborz Mountains, Iran. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 42, 263–283.

Ghobadi Pour, M., Ghavidel-Syooki, M., Álvaro, J.J., Popov, L.E. & Ehsani, M.H. 2015a. First reported Late Ordovician trilobites from the High Zagros Ranges, Iran: a biogeographic link between Gondwanan Chinese and Mediterranean faunas. Geobios 48, 351–369.View article

Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Holmer, L.E., Hosseini-Nezhad, M., Rasuli, R., Fallah, Kh., Amini, A. & Jahangir, H. 2015b. Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) faunas and biostratigraphy of the Gerd-Kuh section, eastern Alborz, Iran. Stratigraphy 12, 55-61.

Glaus, M. 1965. Die Geologie des Gebietes nördlich des Kandevan-Passes (Zentral Elburz), Iran. Published thesis. Mitteilungen aus dem Geologischen Institut der Eidgenössischen, Technischen Hochschule und Universität Zürich N.S. 48, 1–165.

Golonka, J. 2007. Geodynamic evolution of the South Caspian Basin, 17–41. In Yilmaz, P.O. & Isakson, G.H. (eds) Oil and Gas of the Greater Caspian Area. AAPG Studies in Geology 55.

Golonka, J. 2012. Paleozoic paleoenvironment and paleolithofacies maps of Gondwana. Kwartalnik AGH. Geologia 33, 1–82.

Gorjansky, V.Yu. 1969. Inarticulate Brachiopods of the Cambrian and Ordovician of the Northwest Russian Platform. 173 pp. Ministerstvo Geologii RSFSR, Severo-Zapadnoe Territorialnoe Geologicheskoe Upravlenie, Leningrad. [in Russian]

Graves, R.W. & S. Ellison, 1941. Ordovician conodonts of the Marathon Basin, Texas. University of Missouri, School of Mines and Metallurgy, Bulletin (Ser.) 14, 1–26.

Hairapetian, V., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E. & Modzalevskaya, T.L. 2012. Stegocornu and associated brachiopods from the Silurian (Llandovery) of Central Iran. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 61, 82–104.View article

Hairapetian, V., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Hejazi, S.H., Holmer, L.E., Evans, D. & Sharafi, A. 2015. Ordovician of the Anarak Region: implications in understanding Early Palaeozoic history of Central Iran. Stratigraphy 12, 22-30.

Hairapetian, V., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Männik, P. & Miller, C.G. 2017. Silurian stratigraphy of Central Iran – an update. Acta Geologica Polonica 67, 201–233.View article

Hall, J. 1865. Graptolites of the Quebec Group. Canadian organic remains. Geological Survey of Canada 2, 1–151.

Hamedi, M.A., Wright, A.J., Aldridge, R.J., Boucot, A.J., Bruton, D.L., Chatterton, B.D.E., Jones, P., Nicoll, R.S., Rickards, R.B. & Ross, J.R.P. 1997. Cambrian to Silurian of East-Central Iran: new biostratigraphic and biogeographic data. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Palaeontologie. Monatshefte 7, 412–424.View article

Hammann, W. & Leone, F. 1997. Trilobites of the post-Sardic (Upper Ordovician) sequence of southern Sardinia. Part I. Beringeria 20, 1–217.

Hassanzadeh, J., Stockli, D.F., Horton, B.K., Axen, G.J., Stockli, L.D., Grove, M., Schmitt, A.K. & Walker, J.D. 2008. U–Pb zircon geochronology of late Neoproterozoic–Early Cambrian granitoids in Iran: implications for paleogeography, magmatism, and exhumation history of Iranian basement. Tectonophysics 451, 71–96.View article

Havlíček, V. 1977. Brachiopods of the Order Orthida in Czechoslovakia. Rozpravy Ústředního ústavu Geologického 44, 1–327.

Havlíček, V. 1981. Upper Ordovician brachiopods from the Montagne Noire. Paleontographica, Abteilung A 176, 1–34.

Henningsmoen, G. 1948. The Tretaspis series of the Kullatorp core. Bulletin of the Geological Institute of the University of Uppsala 32, 374–432.

Holmer, L.E. & Biernat, G. 2002. Lingulate brachiopods from Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc) chalcedonites, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 47, 141–156.

Hollingsworth, J., Jackson, J., Walker, R. & Nazari, H. 2008. Extrusion tectonics and subduction in the eastern South Caspian region since 10 Ma. Geology 36, 763–766.View article

Honarmand, M., Li, X.-H., Nabatian, G., Rezaeian, M. & Etemad-Saeed, N. 2016. Neoproterozoic–Early Cambrian tectono-magmatic evolution of the Central Iranian terrane, northern margin of Gondwana: Constraints from detrital zircon U–Pb and Hf–O isotope studies. Gondwana Research 37, 285–300.View article

Horný, R.J. 1997. Ordovician tergomya and gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Anti-Atlas (Morocco). Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae, Series B, Natural History 53, 37–78.

Horton, B.K., Hassanzadeh, J., Stockli, D.F., Axen, G.J., Gillis, R.J., Guest, B., Amini, A., Fakhari, M.D., Zamanzadeh, S.M. & Grove, M. 2008. Detrital zircon provenance of Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic deposits in Iran: Implications for chronostratigraphy and collisional tectonics. Tectonophysics 451, 97–122.View article

Hsü, S.C. 1948. Part III, The I-Changian trilobites and other fossils, 1–51. In Hsü, S.C. & Ma, C.T. (eds) The I-Chang Formation and the Ichangian fauna. Contributions from the Institute of Geology, Academia Sinica 8.

Jafarian, B. & Taheri, J. 1994. Geological map of Bojnurd. Geological map of Iran 1:100.000 Series, Sheet 7464. Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Jahangir, H., Ghobadi Pour, M.G., Holmer, L.E., Popov, L.E., Ashuri, A.R., Rushton, A., Tolmacheva, T.Y. & Amini, A. 2015. Biostratigraphy of the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary beds at Kopet-Dagh, Iran. Stratigraphy 2, 40–47.View article

Jahangir, H., Ghobadi Pour, M., Ashuri, A. & Amini, A. 2016. Terminal Cambrian and Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) conodonts from Eastern Alborz, north-central Iran. Alcheringa 40, 219–243.View article

Jansonius, J. 1964. Morphology and classification of some chitinozoa. Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geologists 12, 901–918.

Jenkins, W.A.M. 1970. Chitinozoa from the Ordovician Sylvan Shale of the Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma. Palaeontology 13, 261–288.

Ji, Z. & Barnes, C.R. 1994. Lower Ordovician conodonts of the St. George Group, Port au Port Peninsula, western Newfoundland, Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana 11, 1–149.

Karim, T.S. 2009 (2008). Late Ordovician trilobites from northwest Iran and their biogeographical a?nities. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 99, 101–124.View article

Kaz’min, V.G. & Verzhbitskii, E.V. 2011. Age and origin of the South Caspian Basin. Oceanology 51, 131–140.View article

Kebria-ee Zadeh, M.R., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Baars, C. & Jahangir, H. 2015. First record of the Ordovician fauna in Mila-Kuh, eastern Alborz, northern Iran. Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences 64, 121–139.View article

Kebria-ee Zadeh, M.R., Popov, L.E. & Ghobadi Pour, M. 2017. A new orthide brachiopod genus from the Middle Ordovician of the Alborz Mountains, Iran. GFF 139(4), 327–332.View article

Kielan, Z. 1960. Upper Ordovician trilobites from Poland and some related forms from Bohemia and Scandinavia. Palaeontologica Polonica 11, 1–198.

Kolodner, K., Avigad, D., McWilliams, M., Wooden, J.L., Weissbrod, T. & Feinstein, S. 2006. Provenance of north Gondwana Cambrian–Ordovician sandstone: U–Pb SHRIMP dating of detrial zircon from Israel and Jordan. Geological Magazine 143, 367–391.View article

Kozlowski, R. 1967. Sur certains fossiles ordoviciens a test organique. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 12, 99–132.

Kröger, B. & Evans, D.H. 2011. Review and palaeoecological analysis of the late Tremadocian–early Floian (Early Ordovician) cephalopod fauna of the Montagne Noire, France. Fossil Record 14, 5–34.View article

Kröner, A., Eyal, M. & Eyal, Y. 1990. Early Pan-African evolution of the basement around Elat, Israel and the Sinai peninsula revealed by single-zircon evaporation dating, and implications for crustal accretion rates. Geology 18, 545–548.View article

Kruse, P.D. & Zhuravlev, A.Yu. 2008. Middle–Late Cambrian Rankenella-Girvanella reefs of the Mila Formation, northern Iran. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 45, 619–639.View article

Kushan, B. 1973. Stratigraphie und trilobiten Fauna in der Mila-Formation Mittelkambrium-Tremadoc) im Alborz-Gebirge (N-Iran). Palaeontographica A 144, 113–165.

Lan, C.Y., Chung, S.L., Lo, C.H., Lee, T.Y., Wang, P.L., Li, H. & Van Toan, D. 2001. First evidence for Archean continental crust in northern Vietnam and its implications for crustal and tectonic evolution in Southeast Asia. Geology 29, 219–222.View article

Lee, C.K. & Chen, X. 1962. Cambrian and Ordovician graptolites from Sandu, S. Gueizhou (Kueichou). Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 10, 12–30.

Lefebvre, B., Ghobadi Pour, M. & Nardin, E. 2005. Ordovician echinoderms from the Tabas and Damghan regions, Iran: palaeobiogeographical implications. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 176, 231–242.View article

Legrand, P. 1977. Contribution a l’étude des graptolites du Llandoverien inferieur de l’Oued In Djerane (Tassili N’Ajjer oriental, Sahara algérien). Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire Naturelle de l’Afrique du Nord 67, 141–196.

Lindholm, K. 1991. Ordovician graptolites from the early Hunneberg of Southern Scandinavia. Palaeontology 34, 283–327.

Lindström, M. 1955. Conodonts from the lowermost Ordovician strata of south-central Sweden. Geologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Förhandlingar 76, 517–604.View article

Linnemann, U., Gerdes, A., Hofmann, M. & Marko, L. 2014. The Cadomian Orogen: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian crustal growth and orogenic zoning along the periphery of the West African Craton – constraints from U–Pb zircon ages and Hf isotopes (Schwarzburg Antiform, Germany). Precambrian Research 244, 236–278.View article

Long, X.P., Yuan, C., Sun, M., Zhao, G.C., Xiao, W.J., Wang, Y.J., Yang, Y.H. & Hu, A.Q. 2010. Archean crustal evolution of the northern Tarim craton, NW China: zircon U–Pb and Hf isotopic constraints. Precambrian Research 180, 272–284.View article

Lu, Y. 1957. Trilobita, 249–294. In Academia Sinica (ed.) Index fossils of China, Invertebrata, III. Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Geological Publishing House, Beijing. [in Chinese]

Lu, Y. 1962. Early Ordovician trilobites, 42–47. In Wang, Y. (ed.) A Handbook of index fossils of Yangtze District. Science Press, Beijing. [in Chinese]

Lu, Y. 1975. Ordovician trilobite faunas of central and southwestern China. Palaeontologica Sinica, New Series B 11, 1–463. [in Chinese and English]

Ma, X.X., Shu, L.S., Santosh, M. & Li, J.Y. 2012. Detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and Hf isotope data from Central Tianshan suggesting a linkwith the Tarim Block: implications on Proterozoic supercontinent history. Precambrian Research 206, 1–16.View article

Maletz, J., Löfgren, A. & Bergström, S.M. 1996. The base of the Tetragraptus approximatus Zone at Hunneberg, S.W. Sweden: A proposed global stratotype for the base of the second Series of the Ordovician System. Newsletters on Stratigraphy 34, 129–159.View article

Meert, J.G. 2014. Strange attractors, spiritual interlopers and lonely wanderers: the search for pre-Pangean supercontinents. Geoscience Frontiers 5, 155–166.View article

Meinhold, G., Morton, A.C. & Avigad, D. 2013. New insights into peri-Gondwana paleogeography and the Gondwana super-fan system from detrital zircon U–Pb ages. Gondwana Research 23, 661–665.View article

Mel’nikov, B.N., Rozanov, A.Yu., Suslov, M.V. & Fonin, V.D. 1986. First archaeocyathids from the Lower Cambrian of Central Iran. Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR 1986, 134–138. [in Russian]

Mergl, M. 1997. Distribution of the lingulate brachiopod Thysanotos in Central Europe. Věstník Českého geologického ústavu 72, 27–36.

Mergl, M. 2002. Linguliformean and craniiformean brachiopods of the Ordovician Třenice to Dobrotivá formations) of Barrandian, Bohemia. Acta Museis Nationale Prague, series B, Natural History 58, 1–82.

Merle, O. 2011. A simple continental rift classification. Tectonophysics 513, 88–95.View article

Miller, J.F. 1984. Cambrian and earliest Ordovician conodont biofacies and provincialism, 43–68. In Clark, D.L. (ed.) Conodont biofacies and provincialism. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 196.View article

Miller, J.F., Repetski, J.E., Nicoll, R.S., Nowlan, G. & Ethington, R.L. 2014. The conodont Iapetognathus and its value for defining the base of the Ordovician System. GFF 136, 185–188.View article

Morag, N., Avigad, D., Gerdes, A., Belousova, E. & Harlavan, Y. 2011. Crustal evolution and recycling in the northern Arabian-Nubian Shield: new perspectives from zircon Lu–Hf and U–Pb systematics. Precambrian Research 186, 101–116.View article

Moreman, W.L. 1930. Arenaceous foraminifera from Ordovician and Silurian limestones of Oklahoma. Journal of Paleontology 4, 42–59.

Mu, A.T. & Lee, C.K. 1958. Scandent graptolites from the Ningkuo Shale of the Kiangshan-Changshan Area, western Chekiang. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 6, 391–427. [in Chinese]

Mu, A.T., Ge, M.Y., Chen, X., Ni, Y.N. & Lin, Y.K. 1979. Lower Ordovician graptolites of south-west China. Palaeontologia Sinica 156B(13), 1–192 [in Chinese]

Müller, K. 1959. Kambrische Conodonten. Zeitschrift Deutschen Geologische Gesellschaft 111, 434–485.View article

Müller, K. 1973. Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician conodonts from northern Iran. Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 30, 1–77.

Müller, R. & Walter, R. 1984. Stratigraphy, magmatism, and structure of the Precambrian-Paleozoic Taknar Inlier northwest of Kashmar (Khorassan; northeast Iran). Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 168, 327–344.View article

Muttoni, G., Mattei, M., Balini, M., Zanchi, A., Gaetani, M. & Berra, F. 2009. The drift history of Iran from the Ordovician to the Triassic, 7–29. In Brunet, M.-F., Wilmsen, M. & Granath, J.W. (eds) South Caspian to Central Iran basins. Geological Society London, Special Publication 312.View article

Natal’in, B.A. & Şengör, A.C. 2005. Late Palaeozoic to Triassic evolution of the Turan and Scythian platforms: the pre-history of the Palaeo-Tethyan closure. Tectonophysics 404, 175–202.View article

Nestell, G.P. & Tolmacheva, T.Yu. 2004. Early Ordovician foraminifers from the Lava Section, northwestern Russia. Micropaleontology 50, 253–280.View article

Nestell, G.P., Ghobadi Pour, M., Jahangir, H., Tolmacheva, T.Yu., Popov, L.E., Hunt, A. & Chakrabarty, P. 2016. First Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) Foraminifers from Alborz Mountains, northern Iran. Micropaleontology 62, 415–427.View article

Nicoll, R.S. 1991. Differentiation of Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician species Cordylodus (Conodonta) with biapical basal cavities: BMR Journal of Australia Geology and Geophysics 12, 223–244.

Pander, C.H. 1856. Monographie der fossilen Fische des silurischen Systems der russisch–baltischen Gouvernments. 91 pp. Akademie der Wissenschaft, St. Petersburg.

Paris, F. 1990. The Ordovician chitinozoan biozones of the Northern Gondwana domain. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 66, 181–209.View article

Peng, S., Geyer, G. & Hamdi, B. 1999. Trilobites from the Shahmirzad section, Alborz Mountains, Iran: their taxonomy, biostratigraphy and bearing for international correlation. Beringeria 25, 3–66.

Percival, I.G., Wright, A.J., Nicoll, R.S. & Hamedi, M.A. 2009. ‘Martellia’ and associated Middle Ordovician brachiopods from the Gatkuiyeh Formation, East-Central Iran. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 315–325.

Perner, J. 1895. Studie o českých graptolitech II. Palaeontographica Bohemica 36, 1–52.

Perner, J. 1903. Gastéropodes. 1. Texte (Patellidae et Bellerophontidae) et Planches, 1–89. In Barrande, J. (ed.) Systeme Silurien du centre de la Boheme 4. Charles Bellmann, Prague.

Pillet, J. 1973. Sur quelques trilobites ordoviciens d’Iran oriental. Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord 93, 33–38.

Popov, L.E. & Cocks, L.R.M. 2013. The radiation of early Silurian spiriferide brachiopods, with new taxa from the Llandovery of Iran. Alcheringa 37, 558–564.View article

Popov, L.E. & Cocks, L.R.M. 2017. The World’s second oldest strophomenoid-dominated benthic assemblage in the first Dapingian (Middle Ordovician) brachiopod fauna identified from Iran. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 140, 1–12.View article

Popov, L.E. & Holmer, L.E. 1994. Cambrian–Ordovician lingulate brachiopods from Scandinavia, Kazakhstan, and South Ural Mountains. Fossils & Strata 27, 1–156.View article

Popov, L.E., Vinn, O. & Nikitina, O.I. 2001. Brachiopods of the redefined family Tritoechiidae from the Ordovician of Kazakhstan and South Urals. Geobios 32, 131–155.View article

Popov, L.E., Ghobadi Pour, M. & Hosseini, M. 2008. Early to Middle Ordovician lingulate brachiopods from the Lashkarak Formation, Eastern Alborz Mountains, Iran. Alcheringa 32, 1–35.View article

Popov, L.E., Ghobadi Pour, M., Bassett, M.G. & Kebria-Ee, M. 2009a. Billingsellide and orthide brachiopods: new insights into earliest Ordovician evolution and biogeography from northern Iran. Palaeontology 52, 35–52.View article

Popov, L.E., Ghobadi Pour, M., Hosseini, M. & Holmer, L.E. 2009b. Furongian linguliform brachiopods from the Alborz Mountains, Iran. Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 37, 103–122.

Popov, L.E., Holmer, L.E., Bassett, M.G., Ghobadi Pour, M. & Percival, I.G. 2013. Biogeography of Ordovician linguliform and craniiform brachiopods, 117–126. In Harper, D.A.T. & Servais, T. (eds) Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography. Geological Society London, Memoir 38.View article

Popov, L.E., Hairapetian, V., Evans, D.H., Ghobadi Pour, G., Holmer, L.E. & Baars, C. 2015. Review of the Ordovician stratigraphy and fauna of the Anarak Region in Central Iran. Acta Geologica Polonica 65, 403–435.View article

Popov, L.E., Kebriaee-Zadeh, M.R. & Ghobadi Pour, M.G. 2016. Emergence of the ‘Saucrorthis’ Fauna in the middle Ordovician of Northern Iran. Australasian Palaeontological Memoirs 49, 485–514.

Pyle, L.J. & Barnes, C.R. 2002. Taxonomy, evolution, and biostratigraphy of conodonts from the Kechika Formation, Skoki Formation, and Road River Group (Upper Cambrian to Lower Silurian). 227 pp. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Northeastern British Columbia.View article

Ramezani, J. & Tucker, R.D. 2003. The Saghand region, central Iran: U-Pb geochronology, petrogenesis and implications for Gondwana tectonics. American Journal of Science 33, 622–665.View article

Reed, F.R.C. 1906. The Lower Palaeozoic fossils of the Northern Shan States, Burma. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Palaeontologia Indica, New Series 2(3), 1–154.

Repina, L.N., Yaskovich, B.V., Aksarina, N.A., Petrunina, Z.E., Poniklenko, I.A., Rubanov, D.A., Bolgova, G.V., Golikov, A.N., Khairullina, T.I. & Posochova, M.M. 1975. Stratigraphy and fauna of the lower Palaeozoic of northern foothills of the Turkestan and Alai Ranges (south Tieh Shan). Trudy Instituta geologii i geofiziki 278, 1–351. [in Russian]

Rhodes, F.H.T. 1953. Some British Lower Palaeozoic conodont faunas. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 237, 261-334.View article

Rickards, R.B., Hamedi, M.A. & Wright, A.J. 1994. A new Arenig (Ordovician) graptolite fauna from the Kerman District, east-central Iran. Geological Magazine 131, 35?42.View article

Rickards, R.B., Hamedi, M.A. & Wright, A.J. 2000. Late Ordovician and Early Silurian graptolites from southern Iran. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 58, 103?122.

Rickards, R.B., Hamedi, M.A. & Wright, A.J. 2001. A new assemblage of graptolites, rhabdopleuran hemichordates and chitinous hydroids from the late Arenig (Ordovician) of the Banestan area, east-central Iran. Alcheringa 25, 169?190.View article

Riva, J. 1994. Yutagraptus mantuanus Riva in Rickards 1994, a pendent xiphograptid from the Lower Ordovician of Utah, USA, 1?13. In Chen, X., Erdtmann, B.-D. & Ni, Y. (eds) Graptolite Research Today. Academia Sinica.

Rojas-Agramonte, Y., Kröner, A., Demoux, A., Xia, X., Wang, W., Donskaya, T., Liu, D. & Sun, M. 2011. Detrital and xenocrystic zircon ages from Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic arc terranes of Mongolia: significance for the origin of crustal fragements in the Central Asian Orogenic belt. Gondwana Research 19, 751–763.View article

Rong, J., Jin, Y., Shen, S. & Zhan, R. 2017. Phanerozoic Brachiopod Genera of China. Vol. 1-2. 1096 pp. Science Press, Beijing.

Ruedeman, R. 1904. Graptolites of New York. Part I. Graptolites of the lower beds. New York State Museum Bulletin 7, art. 457803.

Rushton, A.W.A., Ghobadi Pour, M., Popov, L.E., Jahangir, H. & Amini, A. 2021. The Lower Ordovician graptolites and and marine incursions in eastern Alborz, Iran. Geological Magazine 158, 1719?1732.View article

Ruttner, A., Nabavi, M.H. & Hajian, J. 1968. Geology of the Shirgesht area (Tabas area, East Iran). Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 4, 1?133.

Salvador, A. (ed.) 1994. International Stratigraphic Guide – A guide to stratigraphic classification, terminology and procedure. 2nd edition. 214 pp. The Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.

Schallreuter, R., Hinz-Schallreuter, I., Balini, M. & Ferretti, A. 2006. Late Ordovician Ostracoda from Iran and their significance for palaeogeographical reconstructions. Zeitschrift für Geologische Wissenschaften 34, 293–345.

Şengör, A.C. & Natal’in, B.A. 2001. Rifts of the world. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 352, 389–482.

Sergeeva, S.P. 1963. Conodonts from the Lower Ordovician in the Leningrad region. Akademia Nauk SSSR. Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 2, 93–108.

Serpagli, E. 1974. Lower Ordovician conodonts from Precordilleran Argentina (Province of San Juan). Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana 13, 17–98.

Shafaii Moghadam, H. & Stern, R.J. 2014. Ophiolites of Iran: keys to understanding the tectonic evolution of SW Asia: (I) Paleozoic ophiolites. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 91, 19–38.View article

Shafaii Moghadam, H., Khademi, M., Hu, Z.C., Stern, R.J., Santos, J.F. & Wu, Y.B. 2015a. Cadomian (Ediacaran?Cambrian) arc magmatism in the Chah Jam-Biarjmand metamorphic complex (Iran): magmatism along the northern active margin of Gondwana. Gondwana Research 27, 439–452.View article

Shafaii Moghadam, H., Li, X.-H., Ling, X.-X., Stern, R.J., Khedr, M.Z., Chiaradia, M., Ghorbani, G., Arai, S. & Tamura, A. 2015b. Devonian to Permian evolution of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean: new evidence from U–Pb zircon dating and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes of the Darrehanjir–Mashhad “ophiolites”, NE Iran. Gondwana Research 28, 781–799.View article

Shafaii Moghadam, H., Li, X.H., Stern, R.J., Santos, J.F., Ghorbani, G. & Pourmohsen, M. 2016. Age and nature of 560–520 Ma calc-alkaline granitoids of Biarjmand, northeast Iran: insights into Cadomian arc magmatism in northern Gondwana. International Geology Review 58, 1492–1509.View article

Shafaii Moghadam, H., Li, X.H., Griffin, W.L., Stern, R.J. & Thomsen, T.B. 2017. Early Paleozoic tectonic reconstruction of Iran: tales from detrital zircon geochronology. Lithos 268, 87–101.View article

Shafaii Moghadam, H., Salehi, M.A., Jafarzadeh, M. & Zohdi, A. 2020. Provenance, palaeoweathering and tectonic setting of the Ediacaran Bayandor Formation in NW Iran: implications for the northern Gondwana continental margin during the late Neoproterozoic. Journal of African Earth Sciences 161, 1036–1070.View article

Shahrabi, M. (ed.) 1991. Geological Quadrangle Map of Iran NoH4: Gorgan. Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Shahrabi, M. 1992. Caledonian Orogenic phases in northeastern Iran (and emphasis to evidences of Taconian phase in Iran). 29th International Geological Congress, Kyoto Japan. Abstract Book 2. Abstract 435, p. 62.

Sharkovski, M., Susov, M. & Krivyakin, B. (eds) 1984. Geology of the Anarak area (Central Iran), Explanatory text of the Anarak quadrangle map, 1:250,000, V/O Technoexport Report, TE/No. 19. 143 pp. Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Sheng, X. 1958. Ordovician trilobites of southwestern China. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 6, 169–204. [in Chinese]

Shirdashtzadeh, N., Torabi, G. & Schaefer, B. 2018. A magmatic record of Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic convergence between Gondwana and Laurasia in the northwest margin of the East-Central Iranian Microcontinent. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 166, 35–47.View article

Skevington, D. 1963. Graptolites from the Ontikan Limestones (Ordovician) of Oland, Sweden: I. Dendroidea, Tuboidea, Camaroidea and Stolonoidea. Bulletin of the Geological Institute, University of Uppsala 42, 1–62.

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.View article

Stampfli, G., Marcoux, J. & Bud, A. 1991. Tethyan margins in space and time. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 87, 373–409.View article

Staplin, F.L., Jansonius, J. & Pocock, S.A.J. 1965. Evaluation of some acritarcheous hystrichosphere genera. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 123, 167–201.

Steemans, P., Le Hérissé, A. & Bozdogan, N. 1996. Ordovician and Silurian cryptospores and miospores from southeastern Turkey. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 93, 35–76.View article

Stern, R.J. & Johnson, P. 2010. Continental lithosphere of the Arabian Plate: a geologic, petrologic, and geophysical synthesis. Earth-Science Reviews 101, 29–67.View article

Stöcklin, J. 1972. Iran central, septentrional and oriental. In Iran, Lexique Stratigraphique International 3 (Asie – 9b), 5–283.

Stöcklin, J. & Setudehnia, A. 1991. Stratigraphical Lexicon of Iran. Report no. 18. 3rd ed. 367 pp. Ministry of Mines and Metals, Geological Survey of Iran, Tehran.

Stöcklin, J., Ruttner, A. & Nabavi, M.N. 1964. New data on the Lower Palaeozoic and Precambrian of North Iran. Report of the Geological Survey of Iran 1, 1–29.

Stukalina, G.A. 1978. Cystoids and sea urchins, 145–164. In Sokolov, B.S. & Yolkin, E.A. (eds) Ordovician–Silurian boundary beds of Altai-Saiany Region and Tien Shan. Trudy Instituta Geologii i Geofiziki, Sibirskoe Otdeleniye Akademii Nauk SSSR 397. [in Russian]

Stukalina, G.A. 1980. New cystoid and crinoid species from the Ordovician of Central Kazakhstan and Northern Kyrgyzstan, 95–114. In Stukalina, G.A. (ed.) New species of the ancient plants and invertebrates of the USSR, 5. Nauka, Moscow. [in Russian]

Sturesson, U., Dronov, A. & Saadre, T. 1999. Lower Ordovician iron ooids and associated oolitic clays in Russia and Estonia: a clue to the origin of iron oolites? Sedimentary Geology 123, 63–80.View article

Sturesson, U., Heikoop, J.M. & Risk, M.J. 2000. Modern and Palaeozoic iron ooids – a similar volcanic origin. Sedimentary Geology 136, 137–146.View article

Taugourdeau, P. 1961. Chitinozoaires du Silurien d’Aquitaine. Revue de Micropaléontologie 6, 135–154.

Törnquist, S.L. 1901. Researches into the graptolites of the lower zones of the Scanian and Vestrogothian Phyllo-Tetragraptus Beds, I. Lunds Universitets Arsskrift 37, 1–26.

Torsvik, T.H. & Cocks, L.R.M. 2009. The Lower Palaeozoic palaeogeographical evolution of the northeastern and eastern peri-Gondwanan margin from Turkey to New Zealand, 3–21. In Basset, M.G (ed.) Early Palaeozoic Peri-Gondwana Terranes: New Insights from Tectonics and Biogeography. Geological Society London, Special Publication 325.View article

Torsvik, T.H. & Cocks, L.R.M. 2017. Earth History and Palaeogeography. 317 pp. Cambridge University Press.View article

Usuki, T., Lan, C.Y., Wang, K.L. & Chiu, H.Y. 2013. Linking the Indochina block and Gondwana during the Early Paleozoic: Evidence from U–Pb ages and Hf isotopes of detrital zircons. Tectonophysics 586, 145–159.View article

Vannier, J.M.C. 1986. Ostracodes Binodicopa de l’Ordovicien (Arenig–Caradoc) Ibéro-Armoricain. Palaeontographica A 193, 77–143.

Vannier, J.M.C., Siveter, D.J. & Schallreuter, R.E.L. 1989. The composition and palaeogeographical significance of the Ordovician ostracode faunas of southern Britain, Baltoscandia, and Ibero-Armorica. Palaeontology 32, 163–222.

Vecoli, M. & Le Hérissé, A. 2004. Biostratigraphy, taxonomic diversity and patterns of morphological evolution of Ordovician acritarchs (organic-walled microphytoplankton) from the northern Gondwana margin in relation to palaeoclimatic and palaeogeographic changes. Earth-Science Reviews 67, 267–311.View article

Vesali, Y., Esmaeily, D., Moazzen, M., Chiaradia, M., Morishita, T., Soda, Y. & Sheibi, M. 2020. The Paleozoic Jalal Abad mafic complex (Central Iran): Implication for the petrogenesis. Geochemistry 80(1), art. 125597.View article

Viira, V. 1970. Conodonts of the Varangu Member (Estonian upper Tremadoc). Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia, Keemia-Geoloogia 19, 224–233. [in Russian]View article

Villas, E., Arbizu, M., Bernárdez, E., Mendez-Bedia, I. & Aramburu, C. 1995. Protambonites primigenus (Brachiopoda, Clitambonitidina) y el límite Cámbrico–Ordovícico en la Serie de los Cabos (Zona Asturoccidental-Leonesa, NO de Espana). Revista Espanola de Paleontología 10, 140–150.View article

Wang, C. (ed.) 1993. Conodonts of the Lower Yangtze Valley – index to biostratigraphy and organic metamorphic maturity. 326 pp. Science Press, Beijing.

Wang, X.F., Stouge, S., Erdtmann, B. D., Chen, X.H., Li, Z.H., Wang, C.S., Zeng, Q.L., Zhou, Z.Q. & Chen, H.M. 2005. A proposed GSSP for the base of the Middle Ordovician Series: the Huanghuachang section, Yichang, China. Episodes 28, 105–117.View article

Wang, X.F., Stouge, S., Chen, X.H., Li, Z.H. & Wang, C.S. 2009. Dapingian Stage: standard name for the lowermost global stage of the Middle Ordovician Series. Lethaia 42, 377–380.View article

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.

Wilde, S.A. & Youssef, K. 2002. A re-evaluation of the origin and setting of the Late Precambrian Hammamat Group based on SHRIMP U–Pb dating of detrital zircons from Gebel Umm Tawar, North Eastern Desert, Egypt. Journal of the Geological Society of London 159, 595–604.View article

Wolfart, R. 1970. Fauna, Stratigraphie und Paläogeographie des Ordoviziums in Afghanistan. Beiheft zum geologischen Jahrbuch 89, 1–125.

Yabe, H. & Hayasaka, I. 1920. Palaeontology of South China. Geographical research in China, 1911–1916. Report 3. 221 pp. Tokyo Geographical Society, Tokyo.

Yang, Z., Sun, Z., Yang, T. & Pei, J. 2004. A long connection (750–380 Ma) between South China and Australia: paleomagnetic constraints. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 220, 423–434.View article

Zanchetta, S., Berra, F., Zanchi, A., Bergomi, M., Caridroit, M., Nicora, A. & Heidarzadeh, G. 2013. The record of the Late Palaeozoic active margin of the Paleothethys in NE Iran: constraints on the Cimmerian orogeny. Gondwana Research 24, 1237–1266.View article

Zhan, R., Jin, J. & Chen, P. 2007. Brachiopod diversification during the Early-Mid Ordovician: an example from the Dawan Formation, Yichang area, central China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 9–24.View article

Zhan, R., Jin, J., Liang, Y. & Meng, L. 2012. Evolution and paleogeography of Eospirifer (Spiriferida, Brachiopoda) in Late Ordovician and Silurian. Science China, Earth Sciences 55, 1427–1444.View article

Zhan, R., Jin, J., Rong, J. & Liang, Y. 2013. The earliest known strophomenoids (Brachiopoda) from early Middle Ordovician rocks of South China. Palaeontology 56, 1121–1148.View article

Zhang, T.R. 1981. Trilobita, 134–213. In Palaeontological Atlas of Northwest China, Xinjiang, vol. 1. Geological Publishing House, Beijing. [in Chinese]

Zhen, Y.Y., Nicoll, R.S., Percival, I.G., Hamedi, M.A. & Stewart, I. 2001. Ordovician rhipidognathid conodonts from Australia and Iran. Journal of Paleontology 75, 186–207.View article

Zhou, T., Liu, Y., Meng, X. & Sun, Z. 1977. Trilobita, 104–266. In Palaeontological Atlas of Central and South China. Geological Publishing House, Beijing. [in Chinese]

Zhou, Z., Yuan, W. & Zhou, Z. 2009. Evolutional trends and palaeobiogeography of the Ordovician trilobite Ovalocephalus Koroleva 1959. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277, 257–266.View article

Zhu, D.C., Zhao, Z.D., Niu, Y., Dilek, Y. & Mo, X.X. 2011. Lhasa terrane in southern Tibet came from Australia. Geology 39, 727–730.View article

Zonenshain, L.P. & Le Pichon, X. 1986. Deep basins of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea as remnants of Mesozoic back-arc basins. Tectonophysics 123, 181–211.View article