Drifting organisms in the precambrian sea

Drag marks in the Upper Precambrian Winnall Beds of central Australia were made by semibuoyant flexible objects at least 15 centimeters long, which presumably were algae. This find extends the range of such marks into the Precambrian era and supplements the discovery of microflora in the same Sedimentary Sequence.     

Chitinozoans from the late precambrian chuar group of the grand canyon, Arizona

Carbonaceous shales of the late Precambrian Chuar Group of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, contain abundant and well-preserved chitinozoans. The occurrence of these distinctive, tear- and flask-shaped microfossils, the oldest chitinozoans now known and the first to be reported from the Precambrian, seems to suggest that heterotrophic protists (or primitive metaozoans) were extant at least as early as about 750 +/- 100 million years ago.     

The Origin of the Great Bend of the Nile from SIR-C/X-SAR Imagery

The course of the Nile in northern Sudan follows a contorted path through Precambrian bedrock. Radar imagery shows that basement structures control the river's course in this region. Northward-flowing segments follow Precambrian fabrics, whereas east-west segments follow faults of much younger age. These faults may reflect recent uplift of the Nubian Swell and deflection of the river to the southwest to form the great bend of the Nile.     

Microfossils in conophyton from the soviet union and their bearing on precambrian biostratigraphy

Silicified specimens of the Vendian (late Precambrian) "index fossil" Conophyton gaubitza from South Kazakstan contain a diverse assemblage of well-preserved cyanophytic and apparently eukaryotic algae, the first stromatolitic microbiota to be reported from the Soviet Union. Unlike the stromatolites in which they occur, the microorganisms that apparently built this form of Conophyton did not become extinct at the end of the Precambrian.     

Ediacaran (precambrian) fossils from the wernecke mountains, northwestern Canada

Fossil medusoids identified as Cyclomedusa davidi?, Beltanelliformis brunsae, and cf. Sekwia excentrica are reported from Late Precambrian strata in the Wernecke Mountains. They are representatives of the Ediacaran fauna, the oldest assemblage of cosmopolitan metazoans, and are only the third such occurrence in Canada. In addition, specimens broadly resembling the problematic structure Rugoinfractus ovruchensis, previously known only from the Precambrian of the Ukraine, are reported from the Lower Cambrian of the nearby Mackenzie Mountains.     

Composition of the ancient north american crust

Geochemical studies of Wyoming Precambrian graywackes derived from continental crust older than 3.2 x 10(9) years indicate that their source area was at least as highly differentiated as most younger Precambrian crust. The composition of this early crust (approximately that of calcium-rich granite) is not unlike that of the 2.5 to 3.2 x 10(9) year old North American crust. Limited geochemical data suggest that the composition of North America may not have changed significantly during the last 3.0 to 3.5 x 10(9) years.     

Siliceous algal and bacterial stromatolites in hot spring and geyser effluents of yellowstone national park

Growing algal and bacterial stromatolites composed of nearly amorphous silica occur around hot springs and geysers in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Some Precambrian stromatolites may be bacterial rather than algal, which has important implications in atmospheric evolution, since bacterial photo-synthesis does not release oxygen. Conophyton stromatolites were thought to have become extinct at the end of the Precambrian, but are still growing in hot spring effluents.     

Glauconite from the Precambrian Belt Series, Montana

Glauconite from the upper part of the Missoula Group of the Belt Series, Flathead County, Montana, has been dated at 1070 million years by potassium-argon and rubidium-strontium analyses. This is the first glauconite of Precambrian age reported in North America.     

Precambrian rift: genesis of strata-bound ore deposits

Study of deep seismic reflections has detected a Precambrian rift valley below flat-lying sediments in southern Alberta. The anomalous magnetic and gravity trends show that the rift is continuous across Alberta and British Columbia (through the Kimberley lead-zinc field) and possibly the Coeur d'Alene mining district of Idaho. There is evidence that these ore bodies were deposited in a Precambrian rift under conditions similar to those prevailing in the hot-brine areas of the modern Red Sea.     

How old are the eukaryotes?

Evidence from Precambrian sediments appears to indicate that nucleated (eukaryotic) organisms had become well established and relatively diverse about 850 +/- 100 million years ago and that eukaryotes were probably extant, and may have first appeared, as early as 1400 +/- 100 million years ago.     

Deep seismic expression of an ancient plate boundary in europe

Seismological results on the structure of the upper mantle below Europe reveal a marked contrast in seismic properties between Precambrian and younger parts of Europe. The Precambrian craton in eastern Europe is characterized by high shear-wave velocities, which can be explained by low temperatures. The transition to low seismic velocities below Phanerozoic Europe coincides with the crustal boundary zone of the craton and exists to depths of at least 140 kilometers. Despite the long and complex tectonic history of the plate boundary zone, the transition is remarkably sharp, which rules out any significant lateral transport of asthenospheric material across the suture zone.     

Chromium and nickel in the fig tree shale from South Africa

Exceptionally high contents of chromium and nickel in shales from the early Precambrian Fig Tree series of South Africa ( 3.1 x 10(9) years old) suggest that the ancient crustal rocks from which these sediments were derived were ultramafic in composition.     

Algal fossils from a late precambrian, hypersaline lagoon

Organically preserved algal microfossils from the Ringwood evaporite deposit in the Gillen Member of the Bitter Springs Formation (late Precambrian of central Australia) are of small size, low diversity, and probable prokaryotic affinities. These rather primitive characteristics appear to reflect the stressful conditions that prevailed in a periodically stagnant, hypersaline lagoon. This assemblage (especially in comparison with the much more diverse assemblages preserved in the Loves Creek Member of the same formation) illustrates the potential utility of Proterozoic microbiotas for basin analysis and local stratigraphic correlation and demonstrates the need to base evolutionary considerations and Precambrian intercontinental biostratigraphy on biotas that inhabited less restricted environments.     

Two-billion-year granulites in the late precambrian metamorphic basement along the southern peruvian coast

Uranium-lead data indicate that the high-pressure granulitic and charnockitic nuclei within the medium-grade metamorphic complex of the Peruvian coastal area must be related to an orogenic event 2 x 10(9) years ago. As in western Africa and Brazil, this old granulitic basement is reworked by Late Precambrian orogeny. Its presence along the Peru-Chile Trench must be taken into account in interpreting the anomalously high strontium isotopic ratios of recent calc-alkaline volcanism.     

Life on land in the precambrian

Microfossils have been discovered in cavity-fill and replacement silica that occurs between chert-breccia clasts in 1200-million-year-old paleokarst at the top of the Mescal Limestone, central Arizona, and in approximately 800-million-year-old paleokarst at the top of the Beck Spring Dolomite, southeastern California. Microbial communities on Precambrian (>550 million years ago) land may have been extensive enough to affect weathering, erosion, sedimentation, and geochemical processes.     

Precambrian age of the Boston basin: new evidence from microfossils

A Vendian (Late Proterozoic Z) age has been determined for the Boston Basin by comparison of a microflora from the Cambridge Argillite with other late Precambrian assemblages. The microfossils, which include Bavlinella cf. faveolata, are preserved as petrifactions in pyrite. This age designation for the sedimentary rocks of the Boston Basin should allow for the reinterpretation of the structure of the basin and its regional correlations.     

Microorganisms three billion years old from the precambrian of South Africa

A minute, bacterium-like, rod-shaped organism, Eobacterium isolatum, has been found organically and structurally preserved in black chert from the Fig Tree Series (3.1 x 10(9) years old) of South Africa. Filamentous organic structures of probable biological origin, and complex alkanes, which apparently contain small amounts of the isoprenoid hydrocarbons pristane and phytane, are also indigenous to this Early Precambrian sediment. These organic remnants comprise the oldest known evidence of biological organization in the geologic record.     

Phanerozoic stromatolites: noncompetitive ecologic restriction by grazing and burrowing animals

The abundance of stromatolites (algal laminated sedimentary structures) in the Precambrian followed by a decline in the Phanerozoic is explained by the evolution and diversification during the Phanerozoic of grazing animals which feed on surface algal mats and of burrowing animals which destroy sedimentary laminations.     

Precambrian columnar stromatolite diversity: reflection of metazoan appearance

Columnar stromatolites (organosedimentary structures built by bluegreen algae) show a marked decrease in diversity in the Late Precambrian; this decrease in diversity occurs at approximately the same time as the appearance of metazoans, 600 to 700 million years ago.     

Transvaal Stromatolite: First Evidence for the Diversification of Cells about 2.2 x 109 Years Ago

The well-preserved fossil remnants of filamentous blue-green algae have been found in petrographic thin sections of a dolomitic limestone stromatolite in the Transvaal Sequence of South Africa. Some of these filaments contain enlarged cells which are interpreted as akinetes. A new species and genus, Petraphera vivescenticula, is proposed for this microfossil, which is morphologically similar to the living cyanophyte genus Raphidiopsis. This would constitute the first known occurrence of cell diversification in the Precambrian with an age of about 2.2 x 10(9) years.