New agglutinated Foraminifera from Early Eocene deposits of Mahallat region, Central Iran: implication on biostratigraphy and paleoecology

This paper describes the foraminiferal associations along with presentation of three new agglutinated conical species to construction biozonation framework in Mahallat region central Iran. The stratigraphic distribution benthic foraminifers is used characterize assemblage zones that are ascending order: rotaliids-valvulinids Assemblage Zone, alveolinids-coskinolinids and nummulitids-discocyclinids Zone. These characterized by marker fossils localized from inner ramp proximal outer depositional environments. Their biostratigraphic range assigned middle Cuisian early Lutetian. In addition, species: Daviesiconus mahallatensis sp. nov., Barattolites arghadehensis Coleiconus minimus nov. described figured for first time lower Eocene shallow-water limestone studied area. have common characteristics such as eccentric test a low number comparably coiled chambers stage uniserial adult stage, but they differ size, form test, radial subepidermal partitions (beams, intercalary beams, rafters). They associated index Alveolina fauna their middle–late (Ypresian, Early Eocene). Keywords: biostratigraphy, Eocene, taxa, Mahallat,