Bartonian orthophragminids with new endemic species from the Pirkoh and Drazinda formations in the Sulaiman Range, Indus Basin, Pakistan

Abstract The Pirkoh and Drazinda formations in the Sulaiman Range, central Pakistan, yielded assemblages of (early) Bartonian orthophragminids, characterized predominantly by discocyclinids with a significant number of species probably endemic to Indian Subcontinent. The rarity of Asterocyclina and the absence of Orbitoclypeus and Nemkovella are noteworthy. Ten species of Discocyclina Gümbel and two species of Asterocyclina Gümbel, referable to the Shallow Benthics Zone (SBZ) 17 are described for the first time from Pakistan. The discocyclinids, i.e. Discocyclina praeomphalus, D. sulaimanensis, D. kutchensis, along with the new taxa established here, D. zindapirensis sp. nov., D. rakhinalaensis sp. nov., and D. pseudodispansa sp. nov., seem to be confined to the Indo-Pakistani region (Eastern Tethys). The Discocyclina dispansa, D. discus, D. nandori, and D. augustae lineages known from Western Tethys are also common in the Indian Subcontinent, as are asterocyclinids, such as Asterocyclina sireli and A. stellata. The upper part of the Drazinda Formation (‘Pellatispira beds’), referable to latest Bartonian and/or the early Priabonian, is poor in orthophragminids and is characterized by the occurrence of reticulate Nummulites, Heterostegina, Pellatispira and Silvestriella. The records of ‘Lepidocyclina of Caribbean affinity’ with large embryons from the Eocene of the Indian Subcontinent correspond to misidentified Discocyclina discus.