Iranella inopinata Gollestaneh 1965, a puzzling dasycladalean alga from the Lower Cretaceous shallow carbonate shelf deposits of the Zagros fold-thrust belt, SW Iran

Iranella inopinata gen. and sp. nov. was first described in the unpublished thesis of Gollestaneh (1965), as an incertae sedis from the Lower Cretaceous carbonate rocks of the Zagros fold-thrust belt. More recently, the taxon was formally, although provisionally described by Hosseini and Conrad (Geol Croat 61:215–237, 2008), as a dasycladalean alga named Salpingoporella? inopinata. Here, based on the interpretation of quite-abundant although scattered fragments, it is assigned to Iranella, a large-sized, stalked, and capitulum-shaped new genus of Dasycladales. The lower, stalked part of the thallus is cylindrical, strongly calcified, with first-order laterals only, while the large capitulum is only partly calcified, showing one or two orders of laterals. Traces of cysts (reproductive organs) are present in the basal stalk, either in the stipe or the laterals. Iranella inopinata looks to be endemic to the southwestern part of the Tethyan realm, in the Zagros area and also south of the Persian Gulf. In the Zagros Mts., it extends from the Berriasian to the Aptian, with an Acme Zone in the Valanginian. Sequential interpretation proves the presence of this species in the late transgressive and early highstand stages of system tracts, and reveals a low-energy, restricted, lagoonal or back-reef depositional environment, in an inner-platform setting.