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As so ci ate Ed i tor: Wojciech GranoszewskiWe re port an ex traor di nary dis cov ery of ma rine Pleis to cene strata from the north of the Per sian Gulf. The Dayyer sec tion con tains a rich mol lus can fauna in clud ing 26 bi valve spe cies, Sr 87 /Sr 86 data show ing that the suc ces sion is not older than 153 ka (late Pleis to cene). These strata are time-equiv a lents of the Bakhtiari For ma tion, but have a very dif fer ent fos sil con tent and fa cies. Com par ing the Dayyer mol lus can com mu nity to the pres ent-day fauna of the Per sian Gulf shows that many fos sil spe cies are ab sent in the re cent wa ters. The palaeoceanographic dis tri bu tion of the iden ti fied bi valves shows the pres ence of many of them in the Plio-Pleis to cene strata of the Med i ter ra nean Ba sin. This may point to a tem po rary con nec tion be tween the Per sian Gulf and Med i ter ra nean Ba sin dur ing the late Pleis to cene and the ex tinc tion of many bi valves in the past 153 ka.