Abstract
Reinvestigation of the Kushk and Chahmir areas (Bafq and Behabad regions) of central Iran has yielded a diverse assemblage of Ediacaran fossils, including several new species, just prior to the Cambrian explosion of complex animals. The Kushk series consists mainly of shallow marine carbonate deposits followed by deep-water calcareous marine shales. Ediacaran fossils occur commonly in the shale deposits and include biostratigraphically-important taxa Cloudina and Corumbella, which confirms a latest Ediacaran age for these deposits, the youngest examples of Kimberellomorphs (stem-group molluscs) that helps bridge the gap between their first occurrence in the middle-Ediacaran and the crown diversification in the Cambrian, and likely sponges, which are rare prior to the Cambrian.
Highlights
Reinvestigation of the Kushk and Chahmir areas (Bafq and Behabad regions) of central Iran has yielded a diverse assemblage of Ediacaran fossils, including several new species, just prior to the Cambrian explosion of complex animals
We report the discovery of several new field sites from central Iran (Fig. 1a) that host a strikingly diverse assemblage of coexisting Ediacara biota and likely animals
Gibbavasis kushkii n.sp. (n = 9; Figs 2i, 4) consists of a small, goblet- to oval-shaped form preserved in negative epirelief with distinct rows of round protrusions, which originally represented external openings later infilled with sediment[37,38]
Summary
Reinvestigation of the Kushk and Chahmir areas (Bafq and Behabad regions) of central Iran has yielded a diverse assemblage of Ediacaran fossils, including several new species, just prior to the Cambrian explosion of complex animals. The Ediacara biota represent an enigmatic group of large, multicellular, soft-bodied organisms with a global distribution in the latest Ediacaran (~570-541 Ma)[1] Their phylogenetic affinities are poorly resolved[2,3], consensus is emerging that they most likely represent a diverse assemblage of stem and crown group animals in addition to extinct higher-order clades[4,5]. Of interest to this study is the fossiliferous sub-unit 6 (30–35 m), which is exposed in multiple areas (Kushk mine site, Chahgaz, Wedge, Chahmir, and Darehdehu) It is comprised of grey, thin-bedded argillaceous shales (containing trace fossils) with intercalation of grey, medium-bedded sandstones and massive sulfide mineralization containing pyritic intercalations, and green tuffs. The only likely timeframe for the overlap of these three index fossils is latest Ediacaran
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