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Microfossils from oolites and pisolites of the Upper Proterozoic Eleonore Bay Group, central East Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

J. W. Green ,
A. H. Knoll  and
K. Swett
J. W. Green
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina at Spartanburg, Spartanburg 29303
A. H. Knoll
Affiliation:
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
K. Swett
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242
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Abstract

Silicified oolites and pisolites from Bed 18 of the Upper Proterozoic (about 700–800 Ma) Limestone–Dolomite “Series” of the Eleonore Bay Group, central East Greenland, contain a diverse suite of organically preserved microfossils that is, for the most part, unlike assemblages previously described from Proterozoic cherts and shales. Three principal assemblages occur in these rocks: 1) a clast-bound assemblage found in detrital carbonate grains (now silicified) that served as nuclei for ooid and pisoid growth, as well as in uncoated mud and mat clasts that were carried into the zone of ooid and pisoid deposition; 2) an epilithic and interstitial assemblage consisting of microorganisms that occurred on top of and between grains; and 3) a euendolithic assemblage composed of microbes that actively bored into coated grains. The Upper Proterozoic euendolithic assemblage closely resembles a community of euendolithic cyanobacteria found today in shallow marine ooid sands of the Bahama Banks. Thirteen species are described, of which eight are new, five representing new genera: Eohyella dichotoma n. sp., Eohyella endoatracta n. sp., Eohyella rectoclada n. sp., Thylacocausticus globorum n. gen. and sp., Cunicularius halleri n. gen. and sp., Graviglomus incrustus n. gen. and sp., Perulagranum obovatum n. gen. and sp., and Parenchymodiscus endolithicus n. gen. and sp.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 62 , Issue 6 , November 1988 , pp. 835 - 852
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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