Mohammadreza Aria-Nasab,^1,2,*,** Amalia Spina,^3,*** Simonetta Cirilli,^3,**** Jahanbakhsh Daneshian<sup>1

1</sup>aFaculty of Earth Science, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran;
²bNational Iranian Oil Company, Tehran, Iran;
³cDipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, University of Perugia, Italy

^*Corresponding author. Email: mohammadrtk@gmail.com
^**Mohammadreza Aria-Nasab graduated in paleontology from Tehran University in 1995. He is a PhD student at Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. Mohammadreza's PhD thesis focuses on the Carboniferous sediments in Central Iran and since 1998, he has been employed by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). His main experience is on Paleozoic palynomorphs and foraminifers.
^***Amalia Spina graduated in geology from the University of Perugia, Italy in 1997, and received her PhD from the University of Siena, Italy in 2004 for a thesis on Late Palaeozoic to Triassic sporomorphs from Tuscany and the Southern Italian Alps. She has undertaken postdoctoral positions at the University of Siena, the Italian National Research Council, the University of Lille 1, France and the University of Perugia. Amalia is now a research assistant at the University of Perugia, where her research is mainly on the Palaeozoic stratigraphical palynology of Gondwana.
^****Simonetta Cirilli is full professor in Sedimentary Geology at the Department of Physics and Geology of the University of Perugia, Italy. Her research interests focus on sedimentology and stratigraphy of marine carbonate, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic and continental depositional environments; palynology and organic matter studies and their application in sequence stratigraphy; relationships between facies distribution and source rocks and reservoirs.