Permophiles Issue #62 December 2015 EXECUTIVE NOTES

Table of Contents Notes from the SPS Secretary 1 Lucia Angiolini Notes from the SPS Chair 2 Shuzhong Shen ANNUAL REPORT 2015 2 Report on the XVIII INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE CARBONIFEROUS AND PERMIAN 2015 held in Kazan, Federal Republic of Tatarstan, Russia 5 Joerg W. Schneider, Shuzhong Shen 12th International Workshop on the Permian-Triassic / Boreal Triassic II Conference, Longyearbyen/ Svalbard, Norway, August 28–September 1, 2015 10 Gerhard H. Bachmann The difficult early history of the Permian 12 Spencer G. Lucas The Permian sedimentary successions of the Pamir mountains, Tajikistan 15 Lucia Angiolini, Daniel Vachard On the age of the first appearance of the bitaeniate bisaccate pollenLueckisporites virkkiae Potonié & Klaus 1954 in Gondwana 18 Michael H. Stephenson Insights about the biodiversity decline at the end of the Permian. 19 Claudio Garbelli First occurrence of the Permian-Triassic enigmatic conchostracan Rossolimnadiopsis Novozhilov, 1958 from the Dead Sea, Jordan – preliminary report 22 Abdalla Abu Hamad, Frank Scholze, Joerg W. Schneider, Valeriy K. Golubev, Sebastian Voigt, Dieter Uhl, Hans Kerp First report of Upper Pennsylvanian ammonoids and Lower Permian conodonts from Bagh-e-Vang area (Central Iran) 25 Marco Balini, Riccardo Mandrioli, Alda Nicora, Lucia Angiolini, Irene Vuolo, Zohreh Sohrabi, Maryamnaz Bahramanesh SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR ISSUE 63 27 Photo 1: Festningen section, Svalbard, Kapp Starostin Formation, Permian (Courtesy Ute Gebhardt) Photo 2: Outcrop of the Safet Dara Formation which contains the stratotype for the Bolorian, North Pamir, Tajikistan (Courtesy Andrea Zanchi). Photo 3: Conodonts from the Kubergandian stratotype section, southeast Pamir, Tajikistan (from Angiolini et al., 2015). Photo 4: Fusulinids from the Kubergandian stratotype section, southeast Pamir, Tajikistan (from Angiolini et al., 2015). Photo 5: Landing of a group near the Upper Triassic coastal profile Deltaneset/Spitsbergen. Bachmann this issue. Photo 6: Group photo of the attendants after the opening session of the ICCP 2015. Schneider and Shen this issue. Permophiles Issue #62 December 2015 EXECUTIVE NOTES Notes from the SPS Secretary the12th International Workshop on the Permian-Triassic / Boreal Triassic II Conference, held in Longyearbyen/Svalbard, Norway, Lucia Angiolini August 28–September 1, 2015. During the workshop new data on the Permian-Triassic succession of the region were presented and the spectacular outcrops of the fossiliferous Permian succes- Introduction and thanks sion were visited, as nicely described and illustrated by Gerhard During this unusually warm winter, but, as usual, very busy Bachmann. time, Shuzhong Shen and I prepared this issue of Permophiles 62, The next report is by Spencer Lucas, who vividly recounts the via email, as we had not the opportunity to meet de visu. history of the Permian at the dawn of its recognition by Murchison In this foreword, I would like to let the Permian community in 1841. As originally understood, the base of the Permian was know about the great honour received by our chair, Dr. Shuzhong younger than as meant today, but subsequent studies and cor- Shen, who was appointed as a new Academician of the Chinese relation with the European succession allowed the downward Academy of Sciences in 2015. We congratulate our chair for extension of its base. Also, Spencer Lucas explains why, not- this very important achievement which sheds light also on the withstanding its early recognition, the Permian was universally Permian Subcommission and Permian scientific community. accepted only by the Second World War. Unfortunately, we did not receive many contributions from our Lucia Angiolini and Daniel Vachard present a summary of Permian colleagues for this issue, but those received (some at the the main results achieved during their study of the Permian suc- very last minute!) keep the discussion very active and promote cessions of South and North Pamir which is, in part, already good science, making this issue interesting to read. So I want to published. While underscoring the difficulties correlating the thank Joerg Schneider and Shuzhong Shen, Gerhard Bachmann, Tethyan stages and the International Stratigraphic Scale due to Lucas Spencer, Mike Stephenson, Claudio Garbelli, Abdalla Abu provincialism, endemism, and diachroneity, the authors neverthe- Hamad and coauthors and Balini and coauthors for their interest- less suggest a possible correlation of the Bolorian, Kubergandian ing contributions. and Murgabian with the Kungurian to Wordian stages. Also, I would like to thank Claudio Garbelli for his assistance Mike Stephenson critically discusses the biostratigraphi- in editing this and previous issues of Permophiles. cal value of the widespread and distinctive bisaccate pollen Finally, I would like to keep drawing your attention to the new Lueckisporites virkkiae, which has long been considered useful SPS webpage that Shuzhong Shen has provided at http://www. for correlation in the Permian phytogeographical province of stratigraphy.org/permian/, where you can find information about Euramerica. Integration of radiometric dates with palynological Permophiles, what’s going on in the Permian Subcommission, an biozones in South America seems to cast doubt on its isochro- updated version of the list with addresses of the SPS correspond- nous first occurrence, but Mike Stephenson concludes that its ing members and, very important, the updated Permian timescale. biostratigraphic value as a marker for the Guadalupian might be maintained if the original concept of Lueckisporites virkkiae Previous and forthcoming SPS Meetings Potonié & Klaus 1954 is followed. The last business meeting was held during the XVIII The contribution by Claudio Garbelli comments in general on International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian at the the exponentially increasing number of research papers on the Kazan Federal University (Volga region), about which Schneider end Permian mass extinction, seeking clarity over the trigger & Shen report in this issue (p. 5). and killing mechanisms and calling for a more holistic approach A forthcoming SPS meeting is scheduled during the 35th which also considers biotic factors in interpreting timing and International Geological congress which will be held at Cap causes of exctinction. Town, South Africa at the Cape Town International Convention Abdalla Abu Hamad and coauthors describe the poorly known Centre from 27 August to 4 September 2016. non-marine faunal content of the transitional continental-marine Upper Palaeozoic/Lower Mesozoic sequence of the eastern Dead Sea region in Jordan, which is otherwise well known for host- Permophiles 62 ing one the most remarkable Permian floras of the Near East. This issue starts with the report by Schneider and Shen on the The authors report conchostracans from the Himara and Nimra XVIII International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian members of the Ma’in Formation. Those from the Nimra Member 2015 held in Kazan, Federal Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, on belong to species of Rossolimnadiopsis, which, accoding to the August 11-15, 2015. During this important meeting some deci- authors, is a promising biostratigraphic tool for the Permian/ sions were made, among which was the approval of the Usolka Triassic boundary in continental successions. section as a candidate for the GSSP of the Sakmarian Stage, and The last contribution is by Marco Balini and coauthors, who the necessity to better excavate and further study the Mechetlino describe Upper Pennsylvanian ammonoids and Lower Permian and the Dalniy Tyulkas sections. conodonts from the Bagh-e-Vang area of Central Iran. These find- A second report, written by Gerhard Bachmann, concerns ings have important implications for the dating of the top of the Permophiles Issue #62 December 2015 Sardar Formation which seems to postdate the Gzhelian in this the Artinskian-base at Dalny Tulkas and the Kungurian-base at area, and for the calibration of the conodont based age with the Mechetlino Quarry and Mechetlino sections are heavily covered fusulinid based age of the basal Bagh-e-Vang Member. by weathered deposits, and the outcrops are not thick enough to serve as as GSSPs. I am very glad to see that our Russian colleagues immediately organized a meeting during the ICCP 2015 to Future issues of Permophiles discuss how to solve the natural pitfalls of the sections. I hope that The next issue of Permophiles will be the 63th issue. the excavation of the Mechetlino Quarry section and the Dalny Contributions from Permian workers are very important to Tulkas section will be completed soon, so international colleagues move Permian studies forward and to improve correlation and the can go to those sections to investigate more about the conodont resolution of the Permian Timescale, so I kindly invite our col- biostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy in the near future. I also leagues in the Permian community to contribute papers, reports, hope we can move forward to the voting for the Sakmarian-base comments and communications. GSSP candidate at Usolka shortly, after Valery Chernyk provides The deadline for submission to Issue 63 is 1st June, 2016. me more conodont data from the Usolka section. We need more Manuscripts and figures can be submitted via email address data preparation for the proposal of the Sakmarian-base GSSP ([email protected]) as attachments. candidate before we can send out for voting. To format the manuscripts, please follow the TEMPLATE

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