Saccocomid remains (Crinoidea, Roveacrinida, Saccocomidae) in the uppermost Santonian-Campanian deposits (Abtalkh Formation) from the Kopet-Dagh Range (NE Iran)

The washing residues of uppermost Santonian-Campanian marly sediments of the Abtalkh Formation from the Kopet-Dagh Range (NE Iran) provided numerous echinoderm plates among which centrodorsal plates assignable to roveacrinids. These latter are assigned to genus Applinocrinus Peck (Roveacrinida, Saccocomidae). The Iranian occurrence is a major milestone between the Indian occurrence of A. ramaraoi Jain and Mallikarjuna (Campanian), these of A. cretaceus Peck from the Late Cretaceous Boreal Basins (Anglo-Paris basin, Saxony basin), these of A. texanus Peck from the Gulf of Mexico, and those figured from the Maastrichtian Gramame Formation of Brazil (Microcalamoides Bonet). These specimens provide a better constrain in the palaeogeographic reconstruction of Tethyan seaways and represent a potential candidate as a fossil index in the Late Cretaceous stratigraphy of the Kopet-Dagh Range. Such a biozonal potential will be later on confirmed and correlated with the standard reference ammonite zones. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.