LATE EDIACARAN DIVERSITY AND PALEOECOLOGY FROM CENTRAL IRAN

The late Ediacaran (Nama) Fossil Assemblage from the Kushk Series in the Kushk and Chahmir areas of Central Iran highlights a diverse community of globally distributed, soft-bodied (non-skeletonized) Ediacara biota coexisting with skeletonized tubular forms of likely metazoan affinities. Several biostratigraphically and biogeographically important taxa are reported (i.e., erniettomorphs, rangeomorphs, cloudinomorphs, kimberellomorphs, Chuaria, Corumbella), including Convolutubus dargazinensis new genus new species, a new organic-walled tubular organism, allowing for paleoecological studies to be performed. This study highlights the need for continued investigations into the late Ediacaran of Iran, and suggests a biosphere in transition, with a shift in diversity and abundance from large Ediacara biota to organic-walled and skeletonized tubular organisms at the dawn of the Cambrian Explosion. UUID: http://zoobank.org/350bb98c-5322-488d-a9a5-22c911ab7e53