First report of craniide brachiopods in the Palaeozoic of Iran (Pseudocrania, Ordovician), and Early to Mid-Ordovician biogeography of the Craniida

Lower Ordovician faunas of Bohemia (Perunica), Baltica and North China include the oldest known representatives of the Order Craniida, but otherwise in Gondwana and associated terranes, the record of craniides is sparse. Pseudocrania insperata sp. nov. from the Lashkarak Formation of the Eastern Alborz Mountains is the first and as yet only record of the occurrence of craniides in the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) of Iran and temperate to high latitude peri-Gondwana. Pseudocrania was known hitherto only from the Middle Ordovician of Baltoscandia and the Chu-Ili terrane of Kazakhstan.