Abstract
This study focuses on late Paleocene–middle Eocene planktonic and small benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the Khangiran Formation in the Kopet-Dagh Basin (NE Iran). The patterns of regional distribution of foraminiferal fauna were observed in this study, although many of the global foraminiferal index species are absent in the studied southernmost Peri-Tethys neritic section. Accordingly, this work proposes to update a regional biostratigraphic scheme and correlation with adjacent basins based on the first and last appearance of diagnostic species. Biozones correlative with Acarinina acarinata Zone, Morozovella subbotinae Zone, Morozovella aragonensis Zone, Acarinina bullbrooki Zone, and Acarinina rotundimarginata Zone of interregional zonal scheme based on planktonic foraminifera and biozones correlative with Annectina paleocenica Zone, Pseudogaudryina externa Zone, and Pseudogaudryina pseudonavarrana Zone based on small benthic foraminifera were recognized in the type section of the Khangiran Formation indicating Thanetian-middle Lutetian age. Toward the upper part of the studied section in the last phase of marine sedimentation regional oyster beds (Sokolowia spp.) point out late Lutetian-early Priabonian age. Possibly Arctic-Tethys communication systems through the early Paleogene epicontinental seas were responsible for the faunal assemblage similarities and suggest that the Kopet-Dagh Basin of Iran was connected to northern basins of Former Soviet Union and other Central Asian basins during the Paleogene.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Afshar-Harb, A., The Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Petroleum Geology of the Kopet Dagh Region, Northern Iran, Ph.D. Tthesis, Imperial Coll. Sci. Technol., Univ. London, 1979.
Afshar-Harb, A., Geology of Iran: Geology of Kopet-Dagh, in Treatise on the Geology of Iran, Hushmandzadeh, A., Ed., Tehran: Geol. Surv. Iran, 1994, pp. 1–275 (in Persian).
Akhmetiev, M.A., Problems of Paleogene stratigraphy and paleogeography in the middle latitudes of Eurasia, Russ. Geol. Geophys., 2011, vol. 52, no. 10, pp. 1075–1091.
Akhmetiev, M.A. and Beniamovsky, V.N., The Paleocene and Eocene in the Russian part of West Eurasia, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2006, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 49–72.
Akhmetiev, M.A., Aleksandrova, G.N., Amon, E.O., Beniamovsky, V.N., Bugrova, E.M., Vasil’eva, O.N., Glezer, Z.I., Zhelezko, V.I., Zaporozhets, N.I., Kozlova, G.E., Nikolaeva, I.A., Oreshkina, T.V., Panova, L.A., Radionova, E.P., Strel’nikova, N.I., and Iakovleva, A.I., Biostratigraphy of the marine Paleogene of the West Siberian Plate, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2001, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 30–57.
Akhmetiev, M.A., Aleksandrova, G.N., Beniamovsky, V.N., Vitukhin, D.I., Glezer, Z.I., Gnibidenko, Z.N., Dergachev, V.D., Dolya, Zh.A., Zaporozhets, N.I., Kozlova, G.E., Kul’kova, I.A., Nikolaeva, I.A., Ovechkina, M.N., Radionova, E.P., and Strel’nikova, N.I., New data on the marine Paleogene of the southern West Siberian Plate, Paper 2, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2004, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 65–86.
Akhmetiev, M.A., Aleksandrova, G.N., Beniamovsky, V.N., Gavrilov, Yu.O., Herman, A.B., Zaporozhets, N.I., K-odrul, T.M., Moiseeva, M.G., Naugolnykh, S.V., Oreshkina, T.V., Pechnikova, K.A., Chumakov, N.M., and Shcherbinina, E.A., Causal relationships and factors of global biosphere transformations in the Phanerozoic, in Origin and Evolution of the Biosphere, Galimov, E.M., Ed., Moscow: Liberkom, 2008, pp. 509–530 [in Russian].
Akhmetiev, M.A., Zaporozhets, N.I., Iakovleva, A.I., Aleksandrova, G.N., Beniamovsky, V.N., Oreshkina, T.V., Gnibidenko, Z.N., and Dolya, Zh.A., Comparative analysis of marine Paleogene sections and biota from West Siberia and the Arctic Region, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2010, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 78–103.
Akrami, M.A., Geological Map of Iran. 1 : 100 000 Series. Sheet No. 7864–7865, Dargaz. Geol. Surv. Miner. Explor. Iran, 2004.
Arreguín-Rodríguez, G.J., Alegret, L., and Ortiz, S., Glomospira acme during the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum: response to CaCO3 dissolution or to ecological forces? J. Foraminiferal Res., 2013, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 40–54.
Atlas of Eocene Planktonic Foraminifera, in Cushman Found. Spec. Publ., Pearson, P.N., Olsson, R.K., Huber, B.T., Hemleben, C., and Berggren, W.A., Eds., 2006, no. 41, pp. 1–513.
Beniamovsky, V.N., The substantiation of detailed stratigraphic scheme of lower Palaeogene in Crimean–Caucasian area, in Puti Detalizatsii Stratigraficheskikh Skhem i Paleogeograficheskikh Rekonstruktsii (Toward Detailed Stratigraphic Schemes and Paleogeographic Reconstructions), Gladenkov, Yu.B. and Kuznetsova, K.I., Eds., Moscow: GEOS, 2001, pp. 210–223 [in Russian].
Beniamovsky, V.N., Straits, water masses, streams and paleobiogeography of Paleocene marine basins of northeastern Eurasia on foraminifers, Bull. Mosk. Obsh. Ispyt. Prirody, Otd. Geol., 2003, vol. 78, no. 4, pp. 56–77 [in Russian].
Beniamovsky, V.N., A high resolution Lutetian–Bartonian planktonic foraminiferal zonation in the Crimean–Caucasus region of the northeastern Peri-Tethys, Austrian J. Earth Sci., 2012, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 117–128.
Beniamovsky, V.N., Alekseev, A.S., Ovechkina, M.N., and Oberhänsli, H., Middle to upper Eocene dysoxic-anoxic Kuma Formation (northeastern Peri-Tethys): biostratigraphy and paleoenvironments, in Causes and Consequences of Globally Warm Climates in the Early Paleogene, Wing, S.L., Gingerich, P.D., Schmitz, B., and Thomas, E., Eds., Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap., 2003, no. 369, pp. 95–112.
Berberian, M. and King, G.C.P., Towards a paleogeography and tectonic evolution of Iran, Earth Sci., 1981, vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 1764–1766.
Berggren, W.A. and Aubert, J., Paleocene benthonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, paleobiogeography and paleoecology of Atlantic-Tethyan regions: Midway-type fauna, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 1975, vol. 18, pp. 73–192.
Berggren, W.A. and Ouda, K., Upper Paleocene–lower Eocene planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Dababiya section, Upper Nile valley (Egypt), Micropaleontology, 2003, vol. 49, pp. 61–92.
Berggren, W.A. and Pearson, P. N., A revised tropical to subtropical Paleogene planktonic foraminiferal zonation, J. Foraminiferal Res., 2005, vol. 35, pp. 279–298.
Berggren, W.A., Kent, D.V., Swisher, C.C., and Aubry, M.A., A revised Paleogene geochronology and chronostratigraphy, in Geochronology, Time Scales and Global Stratigraphic Correlation, Berggren, W.A., Kent, D.V., Aubry, M.P., and Hardenbol, J., Eds., SEPM Spec. Publ., 1995, vol. 54, pp. 129–212.
Berizzi Quarto di Palo, A., Paleogene pelecypods from Kataghan and Badakhshan (North-East Afghanistan), in Fossils of North-East Afghanistan: Italian Expeditions to the Karakorum (K2), and Hindu Kush, Desio, A., Ed., Leiden: Brill Publ., 1970, vol. IV, Pt. 2, pp. 161–240.
Bolli, H.M. and Krasheninnikov, V.A., Problems in Paleogene and Neogene correlations based on planktonic foraminifera, Micropaleontology, 1977, vol. 23, pp. 436–452.
Bosboom, R.E., Dupont-Nivet, G., Houben, A.J.P., Brinkhuis, H., Villa, G., Mandic, O., Stoica, M., Zachariasse, W.-J., Guo, Z., and Li, C., Late Eocene sea retreat from the Tarim Basin (West China) and concomitant Asian paleoenvironmental change, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 2011, vol. 299, pp. 385–398.
Bosboom, R., Dupont-Nivet, G., Mandic, O., Proust, J., and Ormukov, C., Late Eocene paleogeography of the Pr-oto-Paratethys Sea in Central Asia (NW China, S Kyrgyzstan, and SW Tajikistan), Spec. Publ.—Geol. Soc. London, 2015, vol. 427, no. 1, pp. 565–588.
Bougeois, L., De Rafélis, M., Reichart, G.-J., De Nooijert, L., and Dupont-Nivet, G., Mg/Ca in fossil oyster shells as palaeotemperature proxy, An example from the Palaeogene of Central Asia, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 2016, vol. 441, pp. 611–626.
Bugrova, E.M., Pseudogaudryina externa, the lower Eocene index species from Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Paleontol. J., 1978, vol. 2, pp. 136–139.
Bugrova E.M., Benthic foraminiferal zonation of the Eocene of the South USSR, Dokl. USSR Acad. Nauk, 1988, vol. 300, no. 1, pp. 169–171 [in Russian].
Bugrova, E.M., Paleogene of Turkmenistan (a renewed scheme of zonal sequence and correlation), Neftegaz. Geol. Teor. Pract., 2009, no. 4, pp. 1–32 [in Russian]. http://www.ngtp.ru.
Bugrova, E.M. and Starshinin, D.A., New data on development of the northeastern part of the Tajik Depression in Early Paleogene, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2013, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 652–659.
Bugrova, E.M., Kakhanova, L.P., Konditerov, V.N., et al., Usloviya osadkonakopleniya na territorii Badkhyza v paleogenovoe vremya (Sedimentation Conditions on the Badkhys Upland in the Paleogene), Leningrad: Gostoptekhizdat, 1963 [in Russian].
Bugrova, E.M., Beniamovsky, V.N., Tabachnikova, I.P., Ryabokon’, T.S., and Radionova, E.P., The Kantemirovka Paleogene reference section of the Voronezh Region, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2016, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 602–624.
Bugrova, I.Yu. and Bugrova, E.M., Paleocene and Lower Eocene sections in the southern part of the Crimean Peninsula, Stratigr. Geol. Correl., 2015, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 607–619.
Corliss, B.H. and Honjo, S., Dissolution of deep-sea benthonic foraminifera, Micropaleontology, 1981, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 356–378.
Ernst, S.R., Guasti, E., Dupuis, C., and Speijer, R.P., Environmental perturbation in the southern Tethys across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary (Dababiya, Egypt): Foraminiferal and clay mineral records, Mar. Micropaleontol., 2006, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 89–111.
Guidebook of Microfauna, Vol. 8: Cenozoic Foraminifera, Bugrova, E.M., Ed., St. Petersburg: Vseross. Nauchno-Issled. Geol. Inst. Press, 2005 [in Russian with English Abstract].
Janssen, A.W., King, C., and Steurbaut, E., Notes on the systematics, morphology and biostratigraphy of fossil holoplanktonic Mollusca, 21. Early and Middle Eocene (Ypresian–Lutetian), in The Aktulagay Section, West Kazakhstan: A Key Site for Northern Mid-Latitude Early Eocene Sstratigraphy Holoplanktonic Mollusca (Gastropoda) from Uzbekistan, King C., Ed., Basteria, 2011, vol. 75, pp. 71–93.
Kaminski, M.A. and Gradstein, F.M., Atlas of Paleogene cosmopolitan deep-water agglutinated foraminifers, Grzybowski Found. Spec. Publ., 2005, vol. 10, pp. 1–547.
Kennett, J.P. and Stott, L.D., Abrupt deep-sea warming, paleoceanographic changes and benthic extinctions at the end of the Paleocene, Nature, 1991, vol. 353, pp. 225–228.
King, C., Iakovleva, A.I., Steurbaut, E., Heilmann-Clausen, C., and Ward, D.J., The Aktulagay section, west Kazakhstan: a key site for Early Eocene northern mid-latitude stratigraphy, Stratigraphy, 2013, vol. 10, pp. 171–209.
Kouwenhoven, T.J., Speijer, R.P., van Oosterhout, C.W.M., and van der Zwaan, G.J., Benthic foraminiferal assemblages between two major extinction events: the Paleocene El Kef section, Tunisia, Mar. Micropaleontol., 1997, vol. 29, pp. 105–127.
Krashenninikov, V.A. and Muzylev, N.G., Relationship between the zonal scales, based on planktonic foraminifers and nannoplankton in Paleogene sections of the North Caucasus, Vopr. Micropaleontol., 1975, vol. 18, pp. 212–224 [in Russian with English abstract].
Kucera, M., Planktonic Foraminifera as tracers of past oceanic environments, Dev. Mar. Geol., 2007, vol. 1, pp. 213–262.
Mahboubi, A., Moussavi-Harami, R., Lasemi, Y., and Brenner, R.L., Sequence stratigraphy and sea level history of the upper Paleocene strata in the Kopet-Dagh basin, Northeastern Iran, Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull., 2001, vol. 85, no. 5, pp. 839–859.
Marincovich, L., Jr., Brouwers, E.M., Hopkins, D M., and McKenna, M.C., Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic paleogeographic and paleoclimatic history of the Arctic Ocean Basin, based on shallow-water marine faunas and terrestrial vertebrates, in The Geology of North America, Vol. L, The Arctic Ocean Region, Grantz, A., Johnson, L., and Sweeney, J.F., Eds., Boulder, Colorado: Geol. Soc. Am., 1990.
Van Morkhoven, F.P.C.M., Berggren, W.A., and Edwards, A.S., Cenozoic cosmopolitan deep-water benthic foraminifera, Bull. Cent. Rech. Explor.-Prod. Elf-Aquitaine, 1986, Mem. 11, pp. 1–423.
Murray, J.W., Ecology and Palaeoecology of Benthic Foraminifera, New York: Longman Sci. Techn., 1991.
Radionova, E.P., Beniamovski, V.N., Iakovleva, A.I., et al., Early Paleogene transgression: stratigraphical and sedimentological evidence from the Northern Peri-Tethys, Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap., 2003, vol. 369, pp. 239–261.
Rahaghi, A., Paleogene Biostratigraphy of Some Parts of Iran, Nat. Iranian Oil Comp., 1978, pp. 1–165.
Rivandi, B., Vahidinia, M., Nadjafi, M., Mahboubi, A., and Sadeghi, A., Biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of Paleogene deposits in Central Kopet-Dagh Basin (NE of Iran), J. Geol. Res., 2013, vol. 2013, pp. 1–12.
Robert, A., Letouzey, J., Kavoosi, M., Sherkati, Sh., Müller, C., Jaume Vergés, J., and Aghababaei, A., Structural evolution of the Kopeh Dagh fold-and-thrust belt (NE Iran) and interactions with the South Caspian Sea Basin and Amu Darya Basin, Mar. Petrol. Geol., 2014, vol. 57, pp. 68–87.
Saadat-Mehri, V., Nadjafi M., and Moussavi-Harami, R., Determine the sequences of the Neogene sedimentary environment in southwestern Mozdoran and Tabadakan in east of Kopet-Dagh basin, in Proc. The First Nat. Geol. Conf., Shiraz, 2012, pp. 1–7 [in Persian].
Salahi, A., Vahidinia, M., Biostratigraphy of the lower part of Khangiran Formation based on planktonic foraminifera in the Chehelkaman synclinal, east of Kopet-Dagh basin, J. Stratigr. Sedimentol. Res., 2013, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 87–106.
Salahi, A., Ghaderi, A., Ashouri, A.R., Cristin, A., and Senemari, S., Systematic paleontology and taphonomic studies of Ypresian mollusks at the Kopet-Dagh Basin, NE Iran, Bol. Sociedad Geol. Mexicana, 2019, vol. 71, no. 3, pp. 773–804.
Salahi, A., Ghaderi, A., Ashouri, A., and Siabghodsi, A., Stratigraphical correlation of Paleogene deposits in the Kopet Dagh and Central Asian basins based on lithological evidence and oysters, Geosciences, 2020, vol. 29, no. 116, pp. 295–306 [in Persian].
Shutskaya, E., Stratigraphy, foraminifers and paleogeography of the Early Paleogene of Crimea, Cis-Caucasus, and the western part of Central Asia, in Tr. VNIGRI (Trans. All-Russ. Petrol. Res. Explor. Inst.), 1970, Iss. 70, pp. 1–256.
Speijer, R.P. and Samir, A.M., Globanomalina luxorensis, a Tethyan biostratigraphic marker of latest Paleocene global events, Micropaleontology, 1997, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 51–62.
Speijer, R.P. and Schmitz, B., A benthic foraminiferal record of Paleocene sea level and trophic/redox conditions at Gebel Aweina, Egypt, Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 1998, vol. 137, nos. 1–2, pp. 79–101.
Speijer, R.P., Schmitz, B., and van der Zwaan, G.J., Benthic foraminiferal extinction and repopulation in response to latest Paleocene Tethyan anoxia, Geology, 1997, vol. 25, pp. 683–686.
Speijer, R.P., Schmitz, B., and Luger, P., Stratigraphy of late Palaeocene events in the Middle East: implications for low-to-middle-latitude successions and correlations, J. Geol. Soc., 2000, vol. 157, no. 1, pp. 37–47.
Stassen, P., Dupuis, C., Morsi, A.M., Steurbaut, E., and Speijer, R.P., Reconstruction of a latest Paleocene shallow-marine eutrophic paleoenvironment at Sidi Nasseur (Central Tunisia) based on foraminifera, ostracoda, calcareous nannofossils and stable isotopes (δ13C, δ18O), Geol. Acta, 2009, vol. 7, nos. 1–2, pp. 93–112.
Steurbaut, E., New calcareous nannofossil taxa from the Ypresian (Early Eocene) of the North Sea Basin and the Turan Platform in West Kazakhstan, Bull. Inst. R. Sci. Nat. Belg. Sci. Terre, 2011, vol. 81, pp. 247–277.
Tjalsma, R.C. and Lohmann, G.P., Paleocene-Eocene bathyal and abyssal benthic foraminifera from the Atlantic Ocean, Micropaleontol. Spec. Publ., 1983, vol. 4, pp. 1–90.
Ulmishek, G.F., Petroleum geology and resources of the Amu-Darya Basin, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull., 2004, no. 2201-4, pp. 1–32.
VahdatiRad, M., Vahidinia, M., and Sadeghi A., Early Eocene planktonic and benthic foraminifera from the Khangiran formation (northeast of Iran), Arab J. Geosci., 2016, vol. 9.
Vialov, O.S., The Paleogene section in the Bakhchisaray area. 1. The main Paleocene sections, Geol. Geokhim. Goryuch. Iskop. Akad. Nauk USSR, 1976, no. 47, pp. 80–88 [in Russian].
Widmark, J.G. and Malmgren, B.A., Differential dissolution of upper Cretaceous deepsea benthonic foraminifers from the Angola Basin, South Atlantic Ocean, Mar. Micropaleontol., 1988, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 47–78.
Yanshin, A.L., Geology of the Northern Aral Region. Stratigraphy and Geologic History, Moscow: Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prir., 1953 [in Russian].
Zonal’naya stratigrafiya fanerozoya SSSR (spravochnoe posobie) (Zonal Phanerozoic Stratigraphy of Russia. A Guidebook), Moscow: Nauka, 1991 [in Russian].
Zonal’naya stratigrafiya fanerozoya Rossii (Biozonal Stratigraphy of Phanerozoic in Russia), Koren’, T.N., Ed., St. Petersburg: Vseross. Nauchno-Issled. Geol. Inst., 2006 [in Russian].
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am really grateful to Prof. Eleonora Bugrova for invaluable and helpful comments on the manuscript, identifiation some of small benthic foraminiferal specimens and providing the Russian literature. Also I would like to thank the Prof. V.N. Beniamovsky for providing the Russian literature and Dr. Geise Anjos for editing the English text of manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The article was translated by the authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Amir Salahi Late Paleocene-Middle Eocene Planktonic and Small Benthic Foraminiferal Fauna from the Type Section of Khangiran Formation, Kopet-Dagh Basin (NE Iran), Southernmost Peri-Tethys. Stratigr. Geol. Correl. 29, 303–321 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869593821030072
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869593821030072