Abstract The timings of the onset of oceanic spreading, subduction and collision are crucial in plate  reconstructions, but not always straightforward to resolve. The Paleo-Tethys evolution dominated the  Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic tectonics of West Asia, but the timeline of events is still poorly constrained. We  present new detrital zircon ages from the Binalud Mountains of NE Iran, in order to determine the timing  of tectonic events in the region, and the wider implications for regional tectonics, paleogeography and  climate change. Consistent age patterns in Paleozoic clastic rocks show a dominant provenance from the  Neoproterozoic basement of northern Gondwana. We interpret this as deposition on a long-lasting passive  continental margin after the initial spreading of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. Central Iran-Eurasia collision  caused coarse clastic deposition of the Mashhad Phyllite in a peripheral foreland basin on the Paleozoic  sequence of the northern Central Iran Block. The Mashhad Phyllite yields age clusters at 450–250 Ma and  1,900–1,800 Ma, with a clear provenance from a long-lived continental arc at the active Eurasian margin  since the latest Ordovician. Analysis of the age spectra allows us to constrain the maximum depositional  age of the Mashhad Phyllite as no later than 228 Ma. This age provides a tight constraint on the timing of  initial collision between Central Iran and Eurasia, which also coincides with the Carnian Pluvial Event  (CPE). Our new timing evidence of collision reinforces the previous speculation on the Paleo-Tethys  closure as a causal mechanism for the CPE.