palynology and paleoecology of the sarcheshmeh formation in daddanlou village section, southeast of qouchan (khorasan razavi)

sarcheshmeh formation is one the lower cretaceous formations of the kopet-dagh basin in the ne of iran. an outcrop of this formation in the section of daddanlou village was studied palynologically. the study section, 248 meters thick includs gray marl and gray shale, with interbeded limestone. based on study of 135 slides of 27 samples taken from this formation showed the most of the samples contain palynomorphs (dinoflagellates). additionally, three forms of chorate, cavate, and proximate have been abserved. in this study 37 species belonging of 29 genera were indentified. accroding to identified dinoflagellate, aptian is determined for sarcheshmeh formation in daddanlou section. the identified dinoflagellate studied section could be compare with part of odontochitina operculata zone. based on study of three main groups of palynological elements (phytoclasts, marine palynomorph and amorph organic matter) and results of statistical studies on protection factores of organic materiales such as rate of transparent som to opague som, rate of brown palynomaceral to opgue palynomaceral and rate of som to marine palynomorph indicates that rate precipitation and oxygen was different. finally, based on index dinoflagellate, sarcheshmeh formation depositional environment had been varied from inner neritic to outer neritic.