Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/36773

This paper mainly concerns the systematic palaeontology of some Middle to Upper Permian corals from the Abadeh and Julfa regions, Iran. The fauna consists of 35 species of 15 genera belonging to eight families. Two different kinds of faunas are clearly distinguished. One is from the Middle Permian and is characterised by such typically Tethyan elements as waagenophyllids and by several species of Ufimia and micheliniids. It is followed by an Upper Permian fauna, terminal phylogenetic representatives of the Rugosa, composed mostly of solitary corals (Pentaphyllum). The Permian fauna corresponds well to that of the Transcaucasus, USSR, reported by Iljina (1962, 1965a). Many of the Middle Permian corals are known from South China, whereas Upper Permian corals indicate high endemism. Each species of Pentaphyllum shows a wide range of morphological variation, phylogenetically irrespective of Scleractinia. Inter- and intraspecific variability as well as ontogenetic changes are especially documented to clarify the distinctness of each species.