First record of the Ordovician fauna in Mila-Kuh, eastern Alborz, northern Iran

Abstract

Restudy of the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary beds, traditionally assigned to the Mila Formation Member 5 in Mila-Kuh, northern Iran, for the first time provides convincing evidence of the Early Ordovician (Tremadocian) age of the uppermost part of the Mila Formation. Two succeeding trilobite assemblages typifying the Asaphellus inflatus–Dactylocephalus and Psilocephalina lubrica associations have been recognized in the uppermost part of the unit. The Tremadocian trilobite fauna of Mila-Kuh shows close similarity to contemporaneous trilobite faunas of South China down to the species level, while affinity to the Tremadocian fauna of Central Iran is low. The trilobite species Dactylocephalus levificatus and brachiopod species Tritoechia tenuis from the Tremadocian of Mila-Kuh are new to science.

Keywords

• Trilobita
• Brachiopoda
• Tremadocian
• biostratigraphy
• biogeography.