Ordovician ostracods from East Central Iran

Ordovician ostracods are described for the first time from Iran, enhancing the record of this group from the Lower Palaeozoic of the Middle East. The ostracods occur in the Shirgesht Formation, in the east central part of the country, and comprise Ogmoopsis achaemenid sp. nov., Cerninella aryana sp. nov., Ordovizona amyitisae sp. nov., cf. Aechmina? ventadorni, Vogdesella sp., and podocope taxa tentatively identified as species of Longiscula, Pullvillites, and Rectella. These taxa were hitherto unknown from this region. The ostracod−bearing interval is associated with trilobites (Neseuretinus) and brachiopods (Nicolella) that suggest a late Middle Ordovician age. Although the ostracod fauna is small, it demonstrates biogeographical links at genus−level, and possibly at species−level, with the fauna of the late Middle Ordovician Travesout Formation of western France, which also lay in a peri−Gondwanan palaeogeographical setting. It also suggests the potential use of some ostracods as stratigraphical tools for correlating Ordovician rock successions between Europe and the Middle East.