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Precambrian Carbonaceous Megafossils

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Paleoalgology

Abstract

Carbonaceous compressions have been known for more than a century from rocks now considered pre-Cambrian. They include remains with regular rounded outlines, as well as irregular angulate fragments, and ribbon-like films (Fig. 1), all usually preserved on bedding planes in fine-grained clastic rocks, and most showing some wrinkling due to compaction. Only the youngest Proterozoic ones have primarily longitudinal and punctate markings with biologic function. The fossils range in age from the Early Proterozoic (2 Ga) into the Phanerozoic, and their geographic distribution includes all continents except South America and Africa (Figs. 2 and 3). The most ancient known megascopic compressions are millimetric films from black shales in Aphebian rocks of North America (localities 12–14 in Fig. 2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3C 3J7

    H. J. Hofmann

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  1. H. J. Hofmann
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  1. Conoco Incorporated, Ponca City, OK, 74603, USA

    Donald F. Toomey

  2. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA

    Matthew H. Nitecki

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© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hofmann, H.J. (1985). Precambrian Carbonaceous Megafossils. In: Toomey, D.F., Nitecki, M.H. (eds) Paleoalgology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70355-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-70355-3_3

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