Source provenance
Molloy, P.D., Talent, J.A. & Mawson, R. (1997). Late Devonian-Tournaisian conodonts from the eastern Khyber region, north-west Pakistan. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 103(2), 123-148.
Cited by 6 units (3 published) · 10 field-level citations · 7 revision notes.
Full text reviewed (user-supplied PDF). First documented Late Devonian conodont faunas from Pakistan: 62 species/subspecies from acid-leaching of 226 samples across four measured sections through the Ali Masjid Formation west of Misri Khel, former South Khyber Agency. Independent, primary biostratigraphy. Key result: the Ali Masjid Formation spans the Middle crepida Zone (low Famennian) to at least the Early crenulata Zone (mid-Tournaisian), with a fauna low in one section indicative of the Late falsiovalis Zone (early Frasnian) - i.e. the unit ranges from the early Late Devonian INTO the Early Carboniferous, refining the curated 'Late Devonian'. Two hiatuses inferred (Late falsiovalis-Middle crepida; Late expansa-Early duplicata). Also: Shagai Limestone (<=33 m, position between Landi Kotal Fm and Ali Masjid Fm), Khyber Limestone (transgressive over Ali Masjid, Carbf-Permian), Landi Kotal Fm (oldest Khyber unit, slate/phyllite, no fossils; NOT in this dataset), and the Gundhai Sar sequence (>1000 m, 'Ali Masjid Group' of Khan 1970; late Famennian expansa-Zone conodonts reported by Pogue et al. 1992 from crinoidal limestone = ?Warran Ghundai Fm; corals Cladopora, Thamnopora, Favosites, Heliolites resembling the Early Devonian Nowshera Limestone).
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Units citing this source
- AgePeriodEpoch
- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997): conodonts (62 species/subspecies) from acid-leaching of 226 samples across four measured sections through the Ali Masjid Formation west of Misri Khel (former South Khyber Agency) show the unit spans at least the Middle crepida Zone (low Famennian) up to the Early crenulata Zone (mid-Tournaisian), with a fauna low in one section indicative of the Late falsiovalis Zone (early Frasnian). The formation therefore ranges from the early Late Devonian INTO the Early Carboniferous (Tournaisian), refining the curated 'Late Devonian'. Two hiatuses are inferred (between the Late falsiovalis and Middle crepida zones, and between the Late expansa and Early duplicata zones). It conformably overlies the Shagai Limestone and is overlain (transgressively) by the Carboniferous–Permian Khyber Limestone; the map legend of Stauffer (1968a) gives its range as ?Givetian–Tournaisian.
- AgeEraPeriod
- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997): the Devonian limestones near Gundhai Sar (4–6 km N of Jamrud) form a >1,000 m sequence mapped by Khan (1969, 1970; Khan et al. 1970) as six units of the 'Ali Masjid Group'. Parts have lithologic and macrofaunal similarities to the Early Devonian (Lochkovian–?Pragian) Nowshera Limestone — an abundance of the twig-like tabulate coral Cladopora plus Thamnopora, Favosites and Heliolites — and the authors suggest the entire Gundhai Sar sequence may in fact be Ali Masjid Formation (Group). A spot sample of crinoidal limestone overlying the main limestone (perhaps the Warran Ghundai Formation of Khan 1970) yielded conodonts of the late Famennian expansa Zone (Pogue et al. 1992), coeval with part of the Misri Khel Ali Masjid section. Gap-filled to Paleozoic/Devonian on this evidence.
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- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997): the (Carboniferous–Permian) Khyber Limestone transgresses over the top of the Ali Masjid Formation — the base of the Khyber Limestone transgression is placed near the top of the sampled Ali Masjid sections (above the mid-Tournaisian Early crenulata Zone). Corroborates the curated Carboniferous–Permian age and the Ali Masjid → Khyber Limestone superposition.
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- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997) AGE FLAG: the paper refers to the 'Early Devonian (Lochkovian–?Pragian) Nowshera Limestone' (~50 km E of Peshawar), citing Ali & Anwar (1969), Stauffer (1967, 1968b), Talent & Mawson (1979) and Pogue et al. (1992) — a rich tabulate-coral (Cladopora etc.) carbonate. This DB record's fields are internally inconsistent (age 'Middle Ordovician to Silurian' but period 'Devonian'): if it corresponds to the Nowshera Limestone the age should be Early Devonian, whereas a Middle Ordovician–Silurian span would instead cover the underlying Nowshera-area sequence (Misri Banda Quartzite / Panjpir Formation). Recorded as a flag for reconciliation with a Nowshera-specific source; not overwritten.
- ThicknessThickness (m)
- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997): the Shagai Limestone is a persistent unit of up to ~33 m of limestones (with subordinate shale) whose stratigraphic position lies below the Ali Masjid Formation and above the Landi Kotal Formation in the Khyber sequence (Stauffer 1968a; Shah 1977; Shah et al. 1980). Consistent with the curated Silurian(?)–Early Devonian age; the unit itself yielded no diagnostic conodonts in this study.
- Thickness (m): Thickness surfaced from the age note: the Shagai Limestone is a persistent unit up to ~33 m of limestones with subordinate shale (Molloy, Talent & Mawson 1997).
- AgePeriod
- Age: Molloy, Talent & Mawson (1997): a spot sample of crinoidal limestone overlying the main limestone development near Gundhai Sar — 'perhaps from the Warran Ghundai Formation of Khan (1970)' — was reported by Pogue et al. (1992, tab. 1, no. 22) to yield conodonts indicative of the late Famennian expansa Zone, coeval with part of the Ali Masjid sequence at Misri Khel. Period gap-filled to Devonian on this (tentative) attribution; the identification of the sampled horizon with the Warran Ghundai Formation is not certain and bed-by-bed conodont sampling at Gundhai Sar is still needed.