Journal of Foraminiferal Research,

v. 32, no. 1, p. 1–21, January 2002

NEW PALEOCENE ORBITOIDIFORM FORAMINIFERA FROM THE PUNJAB SALTRANGE, PAKISTAN

ARLES

ERRA`NDEZ

-C

AN˜ADELL

Dpt. Estratigraﬁa i Paleontologia, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Martı´ Franque`s s/n, 08028-Barcelona, Spain.

ABSTRACT

The orbitoidiform foraminifers from the Paleocene of the Pakistan Salt Range, traditionally designated by‘‘

Orbitosiphon

’’ or ‘‘

Actinosiphon

’’, include two differ-ent genera, both with a concave-convex test shape. Theﬁrst of these is characterized by a typically orbitoidalgrowth with lateral chamberlet layers on both sides of the equatorial layer, and corresponds to

Lepidocyclina(Polylepidina) punjabensis

Davies, the type species of thegenus

Orbitosiphon

Rao. The second genus, named here

Setia

nov. gen., is characterized by orbitoidal chamberletcycles and differentiated dorsal and ventral sides, withlateral chamberlets on the dorsal side and a canal systemresembling that of miogypsinids on the ventral side. Itincludes two species,

S. tibetica

(Douville´ 1916) and astratigraphically lower, structurally more simple newspecies,

S. primitiva

sp. nov. Both genera are found inthe top of the Hangu Formation, the Lockhart Lime-stones, and at the base of Patala Formation from the SaltRange ‘‘Laki Beds’’, which comprise the middle and up-per parts of the Paleocene. The test of the new genus

Setia

shows a new morphostructural type, resemblingthat of miogypsinids, but with orbitoidal growth. Both

Setia

and

Orbitosiphon

became extinct before the arrivalof orthophragminids (

Discocyclina

and

Orbitoclypeus

) tothe basin (together with

Nummulites

Assilina

and

Al-veolina

), and therefore are never found together with thelatter. The reports of orthophragminids from the Lock-hart Limestones and the lower part of Patala Shales ac-tually correspond to misidentiﬁed

O. punjabensis

S. tibetica

. On the other hand, the American Paleocene ge-nus

Actinosiphon

cannot be related to either

Orbitosi- phon

Setia

. Although it is similar to the former, itdiffers in several characters, such as the shape and ar-rangement of equatorial chamberlets and the stolon sys-tem.

INTRODUCTIONThe Paleocene foraminiferal fauna of the Salt Range(Punjab, Pakistan) includes a set of orbitoidiform foramin-ifers which have been assigned to a number of genera, in-cluding

Lepidorbitoides, Orbitocyclina, Polylepidina, Dis-cocyclina, Orbitosiphon, Actinosiphon

and

Dictyokathina.

Here, a revision of these forms is presented based on ma-terial collected from different locations in the Salt Range.Although very similar in their external appearance, twoforms of differing architecture were recognized. One cor-responds to

Lepidocyclina (Polylepidina) punjabensis

Da-vies 1937, the type species of the genus

Orbitosiphon

Rao1940. The other form has an architecture that does not cor-

E-mail: cferran@natura.geo.ub.es

respond to any known genus, and is assigned to a new one,

Setia.

The presence of two genera explains the recurrentdescriptions of two forms (A

and A

, with ‘‘biserial’’ and‘‘quadriserial’’ embryo) found in the literature, often ex-plained as being due to trimorphism.GEOLOGICAL SETTINGThe Salt Range (Fig. 1) is the southernmost edge of theHimalayan foreland fold-and-thrust belt, the result of thecollision of the Indo-Pakistan Plate with the Eurasian Platesince the Paleocene (e.g., Jaume´ and Lillie, 1988). Therange rises up to 1500 m out of the Punjab alluvial plainand is limited, to the north, by the Potwar-Kohat plateau,which separates it from the main Himalayan ranges, and tothe south by the undeformed foreland of the Jhelum plain.The Salt Range thrust is a coherent slab, with at least 20km of southerly displacement (Gee, 1989). Its structure hasbeen strongly influenced by the presence of an evaporiticunit, the Eocambrian Salt Range Formation, up to 1000 mthick (Gee, 1989), which forms the level of dećollement.In the foreland belt of northern Pakistan, including theSalt Range, four main stratigraphic units have been identi-fied (Khan and others, 1986; Gee, 1989): (1) the igneous-metamorphic Precambrian basement, (2) The EocambrianSalt Range Formation, (3) the ‘‘platform section’’, whichincludes shallow marine sediments from Cambrian to Eo-cene age, with two major unconformities at the base of thePermian and the Paleocene; and (4) the ‘‘molasse section’’,which consists of Miocene to Pleistocene synorogenic mo-lassic sediments of the Rawalpindi and Siwalik groups,reaching thicknesses up to 5000 m.The Paleogene sediments are represented in the SaltRange by a sequence of mainly shallow-marine sedimentsof Paleocene-Early Eocene age. The stratigraphic sequenceis divided, from bottom to top, into the following units,approved by the Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan (Gee,1989; Sameeni and Butt, 1996):(1)

Hangu Formation

(Dhak Pass beds of Davies and Pin-fold, 1937): sandstone with mudstone and claystone,carbonaceous shale, coal beds, and a few intercalationsof limestone, unconformably lying on the Cambrian toCretaceous basement (Warwick and others, 1995).(2)

Lockhart Limestones

(Khairabad Limestone of Gee, inDavies and Pinfold, 1937): shales and nodular lime-stones.(3)

Patala Formation

(Patala Shales of Davies and Pinfold,1937): dark-grey, fossiliferous shale interbedded withwhite quartzose sandstone, siltstone, marl, limestone,carbonaceous shale, and with coal beds in the upperpart.(4)

Nammal Formation

(Nammal Limestones and Shales of Davies and Pinfold, 1937): limestones, marls, and shales

FERRA`NDEZ-CAN˜ADELL

IGURE

1. Geological map of the Salt Range and location of Dhak Pass, Nammal Gorge, Makerval, and Dandot village sections.

(5)

Sakesar Limestone

: massive, cherty limestones.(6)

Chor Galy Formation

(Bhadrar beds): limestone andshales, often included in the Sakesar LimestoneThe three lowermost units (Hangu Formation, LockhartLimestones and Patala Formation) form the ‘‘Ranikotgroup’’, whereas the three upper units comprise the ‘‘Lakigroup’’.The Paleogene succession reﬂects a general deepening se-quence initiated after an approximately 30 million years hi-atus (Warwick and others, 1995) on a paleosurface devel-oped on Paleozoic and Mesozoic beds. The sequence startswith the middle Paleocene shallow marine and deltaic sed-iments of the Hangu Formation that progressively changeinto the shallow-shelf Lockhart Limestone and the Late Pa-leocene shales and limestones of the base of the Patala. Theupper part of the Patala includes carbonaceous shales andcoal beds, reﬂecting a shallowing of the basin followed, inthe uppermost part of the Patala, which is of early Eoceneage, by a subsequent deepening that continues through theEarly Eocene Nammal Formation and Sakesar Limestone.See Gee (1989) for an overview of the stratigraphy andstructure of the Salt Range.MATERIALS AND METHODSAfter the GEOSAS I Congress, and within the frame of IGCP Project No. 286,

Early Paleogene Benthos,

two ﬁeldtrips (1993 and 1995) were carried out in the Salt Range.During these ﬁeld trips, a stratigraphic framework of thePaleocene-Early Eocene was drawn up and representativesamples were collected. These are now deposited in the Pun- jab University and in the University of Barcelona (Dept. of Stratigraphy and Paleontology). These samples represent arecord of the succession of Paleocene-lower Eocene largerforaminiferal fauna. The succession shows an initial, par-tially endemic fauna, represented by a dominance of

Lock-hartia, Daviesina, Miscellanea, Ranikothalia

and ‘‘

Orbi-tosiphon

’’, replaced in the middle part of the Patala For-mation by the subsequent arrival and dominance of westernTethyan genera, such as

Nummulites, Assilina, Discocycli-na, Orbitoclypeus

and

Alveolina.

The lithostratigraphic andgeneral biostratigraphic (larger foraminifers) framework of the area will be published elsewhere.The samples studied were taken from the Hangu For-mation, Lockhart Limestones and Patala Formation in thePakistan Salt Range. Several sections were sampled alongthe Salt Range. However, the specimens studied come main-ly from the Dhak Pass and Nammal Gorge sections, about7 km apart (Fig. 2). Other specimens shown in the platescome from single samples from the Patala Formation at twoother locations, Dandot Village and Makerval (Fig. 1). Theywere included because of their good state of preservation.About 350 specimens were studied in oriented thin sec-tions. Due to the concave-convex shape of the test, equa-torial sections are partial, showing the embryo and a fewearly equatorial chamberlet cycles. In equatorial thin sec-tions, eleven embryo parameters (Fig. 3) were measuredfrom about 100 specimens. These eleven measures werethen compared and one,

(largest dimension of the embryothrough its plane of symmetry; Fig. 3), was chosen as themost representative of embryo size. The measurements weremade on drawings (most of them



300) made from thinsections by means of a projector Leica Pradovit P 2002.HISTORICAL REVIEWDouville´ (1916) described two species of larger foramin-ifers from the upper Paleocene (Davies, 1937) of KampaDzong, Tibet, which he assigned to the genus

Lepidorbi-toides

Silvestri under the new species names

L. tibetica

and

L. polygonalis.

The former was characterized by a concave-convex test of variable size, up to 17 mm in diameter andless than 1 mm in thickness, granulose surface, an equatoriallayer ‘‘thinner than that in

Orbitoides

’’, and a bilocular em-bryo. The latter species,

L. polygonalis,

was differentiatedby its larger size, up to 25 mm in diameter, and by the shapeof its equatorial chamberlets, which are more elongated andhexagonal to rectangular in shape. Douville´ regarded thesespecies as transitional forms between the Cretaceous orbi-toidids and the Tertiary orthophragminids.Davies (1937) studied the larger foraminifers from theSalt Range and found a form which he considered to bevery similar to those described by Douville´ (1916), both inits general appearance and internal measurements, ‘‘asstrongly to suggest identity’’ (Davies, 1937, p. 54). Daviesinterpreted the differences between Tibetan and Salt Range

PALEOCENE ORBITOIDIFORM FORAMINIFERA FROM PAKISTAN

IGURE

2. Lithological sections and sample location at Dhak Passand Nammal Gorge. The samples containing

Orbitosiphon

and

Setia

are marked with an square.

specimens as those found between micro- and megalos-pheric forms. However, he proposed a new species for theSalt Range specimens, which he included within the lepi-docyclinids as

Lepidocyclina (Polylepidina) punjabensis.

The specimens ﬁgured by Davies (1937, Pl. VII, Figs. 1–8,14, 16, 17, all from the Patala Shales) show two layers of lateral chamberlets and a bilocular embryo followed by asingle ﬁrst chamber. Davies pointed out the presence of twodifferent forms in this species, which he named ‘‘stout’’ and‘‘thin’’ specimens, and which were said to differ also in thesize of the embryo. He attributed these differences to tri-morphism in the sense of Hofker (1925, 1930, in Daviesand Pinfold, 1937).Tan Sin Hok (1939) studied a number of specimens fromthe Salt Range (Lockhart Limestones and Patala Formation),and concluded that the megalospheric embryo could be‘‘biserial’’ or ‘‘quadriserial’’ (i.e., followed by either onesingle chamber or by a chamber with two ‘‘auxiliar’’ cham-berlets). He assigned the species to the genus

Orbitocyclina

Vaughan, as

O. punjabensis.

This assignment was discussedby Rutten (1940, p. 263, footnote), who considered that sucha variability in the embryo would point to ‘‘a relationshipwith the rather irregular subgenus

Polylepidina,

and notwith

Orbitocyclina

Lepidorbitoides

’’. Later, other au-thors also assigned the species described by Davies (1937)to

Orbitocyclina

(Bro¨nnimann, 1944, though he did ques-tion this assignment; Renz and Ku¨pper, 1947; Hanzawa,1965).Rao (1940) also questioned the assignment of Davies’species to

Polylepidina,

because of both the age (the earliest

Lepidocyclina

is of Oligocene age, according to Rao) anddifferences in some structural features, such as the arrange-ment and dimensions of equatorial chamberlets (‘‘homoge-neous’’ and arranged in ‘‘intersecting arcs’’ in

L. (P.) punjabensis,

and ‘‘heterometric’’ and arranged in ‘‘radiatingrows’’ in true

Polylepidina

(Rao, 1940, p. 414)), and thedimensions and the number of the initial chambers. Rao(1940) proposed a new genus,

Orbitosiphon,

which in asubsequent study (1944) he characterized in more detail. Heconsidered that the specimens from Tibet described by Dou-ville´ (1916) and those from the Salt Range described byDavies (1937) belonged to the same species, ‘‘

Orbitosiphontibetica

’’. Rao (1944) considered this species to be trimor-phic, although he differentiated ‘‘A

’’ and ‘‘A

’’ megalos-pheric forms not by embryo size (Davies, 1937) but by thetwo kinds of embryo, ‘‘biserial’’ and ‘‘quadriserial’’, as de-scribed by Tan Sin Hok (1939). Following Rao (1944), theforms from Tibet described by Douville´ included micros-pheric and megalospheric A

forms, whereas those from theSalt Range included megalospheric A

and A

forms.Rao (1944) assigned the Tibetan

Lepidorbitoides poly-gonalis

Douville´ 1916 to

Discocyclina

Gu¨mbel on the basisof its ‘‘rectangular to long-hexagonal’’ shape of equatorialchamberlets, and the presence of proximal annular stolons,and of ‘‘inter-septal and inter-mural canals’’.Rao was the ﬁrst author to relate these Asian forms tothe American Paleocene genus

Actinosiphon

Vaughan 1929.According to Rao (1944, p. 97),

Orbitosiphon

was ‘‘an in-termediate form linking the Cretaceous

Lepidorbitoides

with the Eocene

Actinosiphon

’’. Subsequently the Asian

Or-bitosiphon

has been put in synonymy with the American

Actinosiphon

by most authors, including Cole (in Cushman,1948, p. 358–359), Smout and Haque (1956), Hanzawa(1962, who regarded both forms as having canals), Loeblichand Tappan (1964, 1987), Rajendran and others (1987), andMatsumaru (1991). Only a few authors (Eames, 1952; Wan,1991; Adams, 1987) maintained the genus

Orbitosiphon.

Finally, a few authors regarded

Actinosiphon

and

Orbito-siphon

as independent lineages (Adams, 1987; Drooger,1993).Adams (1987) reinvestigated the types of both