<p>Middle–Upper Jurassic strata from Iran are fairly well-known from the Alborz Mountains of northern Iran, the Koppeh-Dagh in northeast Iran and the thick successions on the Tabas and Lut blocks in Central Iran. However, very few data are available from the Talesh Mountains in northwest Iran where the condensed strata of the Shal Formation represents the higher part of the Jurassic succession. Thus, we conducted a careful study of the Shal Formation in order to provide integrated stratigraphic data, to characterize its depositional environment by means of (micro-)facies analysis and to place the succession in a geodynamic framework. The Shal Formation rests erosionally along the Mid-Cimmerian unconformity on siliciclastic strata of the Shemshak Group and mainly consists of reddish, nodular bioclastic float- and packstones with abundant ammonites and filaments (Rosso Ammonitico facies). According to ammonite faunas, deposition of the Shal Formation started in the late Bajocian and continued into the early Berriasian, with sparse records of Late Jurassic taxa. The composition of the ammonite association indicates offshore and deeper marine environments, supported by the Rosso Ammonitico-type facies that commonly characterizes condensed, current-swept deep-water environments. The deposition of the Shal Formation occurred on the southern rifted shelf of the South Caspian Basin (SCB) that experienced considerable crustal extension and thermo-tectonic subsidence in the aftermath of the mid-Bajocian Mid-Cimmerian Event. Shallow-water deposition prevailed in the southwest (Lar Formation) while towards the northeast, into the SCB, the Shal Formation characterized condensed deep-water environments on submarine swells, potentially represented by crests of submerged rotated fault blocks.</p>