New species and records of Late Miocene mollusks from southeastern Iran
Abstract
We describe three new species of mollusks and report 11 species identifications, from Upper Miocene strata of the Dar Pahn Unit at the Makran margin of southeastern Iran. The new species are the gastropods Bufonaria chabaharensis sp. nov., Cancilla makranensis sp. nov. and the bivalve Corbula darpahnensis sp. nov. The new identifications include the gastropods Protoma harrisoni (Cox, 1936), Protoma kayalensis (Dey, 1961), Neverita didyma (Röding, 1798), Natica vitellus (Linnaeus, 1758), and the bivalves Anadara blanfordi (Newton, 1905), Fascipecten shanganiensis (Eames & Cox, 1958), Pecten kilindoniensis Eames & Cox, 1956, Dosinia peralta Vredenburg, 1928, Clementia papyracea (Gmelin, 1791), Paratapes protolirata (Noetling, 1901) and Arcopaginula inflata (Gmelin, 1791). The pectinid subgenus Fascipecten is raised to genus level. During the Late Miocene, seven of the species were found mainly in the northwestern part of the Indian Ocean, six had a broad Indo-West Pacific distribution. This indicates the existence of a ‘Western Indian Province’ within the Indo-West Pacific Ocean, as reported for the Early Miocene, although less distinct as during the Early Miocene.
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