Guadalupian (Permian) brachiopods from the Ruteh Limestone, North Iran

Thirty-three brachiopod species from the Guadalupian Ruteh Limestone of North Iran are here systematically described and illustrated. Brachiopods have been collected bed-by-bed along five stratigraphic sections and in one fossiliferous locality in the region between Dorud and Shirinibad in the Alborz Mountains. Four new species and one new genus are erected in the present paper: Haydenella eminens n. sp. Perigeyerella rutehiana n. sp.; Martinia bassa n. sp. and Bisolcatelasma iraniana n. gen. n. sp. Quantitative biostratigraphic analysis of the brachiopod data based on the Unitary Association method (Guex, 1991) has lead to the construction of a local sequence of three discrete biozones: The Squamularia sp. B-M. bassa Biozone at the base of the formation, the H. kiangsiensis-N. (N.) asseretoi Biozone in its middle part and the R. exile-R. gemmellaroi Biozone at its top. The latter however has been recognized only in the Shirinabad section. As already envisaged for the Carboniferous and Lower Permian brachiopod faunas from North Iran, the Guadalupian fauna is comprised mostly of cosmopolitan taxa, confirming the role of the Iranian microplate as a staging-post for most of the late Palaeozoic. When compared to the younger Lopingian faunas collected in the same regions of North Iran, the Ruteh brachiopods appear significantly different, indicating a marked biotic change in the brachiopod communities across the end- Guadalupian biotic crisis.