Recent detailed studies on the Batain nappes (northeast coast of Oman),
which represent a special part of the so-called `Oman Exotics', have led
to a better understanding of the Neotethyan geodynamic evolution. The
Batain Exotics bear witness to volcanic activity, sea-level changes,
tectonic instability, rifting and oceanization along the Eastern Oman
margin during Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic times. They allow definition
of the Batain basin as an aborted Permian branch of Neotethys. This
marine basin was created in Early Permian times extending southward to
the East African/Madagascar region and was linked to the Karoo rift
system. The presented revised classification of the Batain nappes
considers the Batain basin to be no longer a part of the Hawasina basin
and the Neotethyan mat-gin proper. We attribute the Batain basin to a
Mozambique-Sornali-Masirah rift system (Somoma). This system started in
Early Permian, times, creating a marine basin between Arabia and
India/Madagascar; rifting in the Late Triassic and oceanization during
Late Jurassic times led to the separation of East Gondwana.