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Annotated Bibliography of Vendian Localities

This list is not a complete bibliography of all that has been published on the late Precambrian or the "Ediacara biota." Rather, it is a bibliography of sources that I used in compiling my data set for biogeographic analysis, and should serve as a useful introduction to the primary taxonomic literature. It is divided into two portions: A second page lists reports of Vendian taxa and localities that were not included in the analysis, with reasons given for excluding them.

GENERAL OVERVIEWS:

Conway Morris, S., Mattes, B. W., and Chen Menge. 1990. The early skeletal organism Cloudina: new occurrences from Oman and possibly China. American Journal of Science 290A: 245-260.

Fedonkin, M. A. 1987. Besskeletnaja fauna venda i eë mesto v evoljutsii metazoa. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta 226: 1-175.

Fedonkin, M. A. 1992. Vendian faunas and the early evolution of Metazoa. Pp. 87-129 in Lipps, J. H., and Signor, P., eds. Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Plenum, New York.

Glaessner, M. F. 1984. The Dawn of Animal Life: A Biohistorical Study. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Jenkins, R. J. F. 1985. The enigmatic Ediacaran (late Precambrian) genus Rangea and related forms. Paleobiology 11: 336-355.

Jenkins, R. J. F. 1992. Functional and ecological aspects of Ediacarian assemblages. Pp. 131-176 in Lipps, J. H., and Signor, P., eds. Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa. Plenum, New York.

Sokolov, B. S. and Iwanowski, A. B., eds. 1985. Vendskaja Sistema. Tom 1: Istoriko-geologicheskoe i paleontologicheskoe obosnovanie. Nauka, Moscow.

Specific Localities

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE (all localities):

Fedonkin, M. A. 1985a. Besskeletnaya fauna venda: promorfologicheskij analiz. Pp. 10-69 in Sokolov, B. S. and Iwanowski, A. B., eds. Vendskaya Sistema 1: Istoriko-geologicheskoe i paleontologicheskoe obosnovanie. Nauka, Moscow.

Fedonkin, M. A.. 1985b. Systematic description of Vendian metazoa. Pp. 71-120 in Sokolov, B. S. and Iwanowski, A. B., eds. Vendskaya Sistema 1: Istoriko-geologicheskoe i paleontologicheskoe obosnovanie. Nauka, Moscow.

Fedonkin, M. A. 1987. Besskeletnaya fauna vendskaja i eë mesto v evolyutsii metazoa. Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta 226: 1-175.

Personal observations in collections of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. 1993-1994.

WHITE SEA COAST, RUSSIA:

Chistyakov, V. G., Kalmykova, N. A., Nesov, L. A., and Suslov, G. A. 1984. O nalichii vendskikh otlozhenij v srednem techenii r. Onegi i vozmozhnom sushchestvovanii obolochikov (Tunicata: Chordata) v dokembrii. Vestnik Leningradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta 6: 11-19.

Personal observations in field and in collections of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. 1993-1994.

See also sources listed for "Russia (all localities)."

PODOLIA, UKRAINE:

Gureev, Yu. A. 1987. Morfologicheskij analiz i sistematika vendiat. Preprint 87-15, Institut Geologicheskikh Nauk, Akademija Nauk, Ukrainskoj SSR, Kiev. 54 pp.

Note that this preprint describes a number of genera that are probably invalid or synonymous with previously established genera. It also presents no photographs of the taxa described, only line drawings. I have tried to use caution in applying it to my study.

URAL MOUNTAINS:

Bekker, Ju. R. 1985. Metazoa iz venda Urala. pp. 107-112 in Sokolov, B. S. and Iwanowski, A. B., eds. Vendskaya Sistema 1: Istoriko-geologicheskoe i paleontologicheskoe obosnovanie. Nauka, Moscow.

Bekker, Ju. R. and Kishka, N. V. 1989. Otkrytie ediakarskoj bioty na juzhnom urale. pp. 109-120 in Bogdanova, T. N. and Khozatskij, L. I., eds. Teoreticheskie i prikladnye aspekty sovremennoj paleontologii. Trudy XXXIII Sessii Vsesojuznogo paleontologicheskogo Obshchestva. Nauka, Leningrad.

Bekker, Ju. R. 1992. Drevnejshaja ediakarskaja biota urala. Izvestija Akademij Nauk, Serija Geologicheskaja 1992(6): 16-24.

Fossil-bearing localities in the Ural Mountains are scattered through the range. For the purposes of this analysis I have grouped them into one.

OLENËK UPLIFT, SIBERIA

Vodanjuk, S. A. 1989. Ostatki besskeletnykh metazoa iz khatyspytskoj svity Olenekskogo podnjatija. pp. 61-74 in Khomentovskij, V. V. and Sovetov, Ju. K., eds. Pozdnij dokembrij i rannij paleozoj Sibiri. Akademija Nauk SSSR, Sibirskoe Otdelenie, Institut Geologii i Geofiziki, Novosibirsk.

See also Fedonkin's review of the Russian biota as a whole. Vodanjuk described two species in the genus Aspidella from Siberia. One of these forms, A. hatyspytiae, probably does not belong in Aspidella, as it has very marked radial striations and folds. However, an undescribed fossil from the White Sea is extremely similar to the form that Vodanjuk describes as A. hatyspytiae. Pending formal revision of these forms, I have included 'A. hatyspytiae' as a separate form from Aspidella s. s. See notes on the Newfoundland biota for comments on the biogenicity of Aspidella.

NORTHWEST CANADA:

Hofmann, H. J., Mountjoy, E. W., and Teity, M. W. 1985. Ediacaran fossils from the Miette Group, Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Geology 13: 819-821.

Narbonne, G. M. 1994. New Ediacaran fossils from the Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada. Journal of Paleontology 68(3): 411-416.

Narbonne, G. M., and Aitken, J. D. 1990. Ediacarian fossils from the Sekwi Brook area, Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada. Palaeontology 33(4): 945-980.

Narbonne, G. M., and Hofmann, H. J. 1987. Ediacaran biota of the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada. Palaeontology 30(4): 647-676.

Narbonne, G. M., and Dalrymple, R. W. 1992. Taphonomy and ecology of deep-water Ediacaran organisms from northwestern Canada. Fifth North American Paleontology Conference Abstracts, Paleontological Society Special Publication 6: 249.

Note that my analysis combines data from three different localities in northwestern Canada. This follows the practice of the authors themselves, who lump the biotas together as the "Windermere fauna."

EDIACARA HILLS, AUSTRALIA:

Gehling, J. G. 1987. Earliest known echinoderm -- a new Ediacaran fossil from the Pound Subgroup of South Australia. Alcheringia 11: 337-345.

Gehling, J. G. 1988. A cnidarian of actinian-grade from Ediacaran Pound Subgroup, South Australia. Alcheringa 12: 299-314.

Gehling, J. G. 1991. The case for Ediacaran fossil roots to the metazoan tree. Memoirs of the Geological Society of India 20: 181-223.

Gehling, J. G. and Rigby, J. K. 1996. Long-expected sponges from the Neoproterozoic Ediacara fauna of South Australia. Journal of Paleontology 185-195.

Jenkins, R. J. F. 1984. Interpreting the oldest fossil cnidarians. Paleontographica Americana 54: 95-104.

Jenkins, R. J. F. and Gehling, J. G. 1977. A review of the frond-like fossils of the Ediacara assemblage. Records of the South Australian Museum 17(23): 347-359.

McMenamin, M. 1993. Osmotrophy in fossil protoctists and early animals. Invertebrate Reproduction and Development 23 (2-3): 165-166.

Earlier work on this biota is summed up in Glaessner, 1984 (see General References list).

CENTRAL AUSTRALIA:

Bland, B. H. 1984. Arumberia Glaessner and Walter, a review of its potential for correlation in the region of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary. Geological Magazine 121(6): 625-633.

Brasier, M. D. 1979. The Cambrian radiation event. In: House, M. R. (ed.), The Origin of Major Invertebrate Groups. Systematics Association Special Volume 12. Academic Press, London and New York.

Glaessner, M. F., and Walter, M. R. 1975. New Precambrian fossils from the Arumbera Sandstone, Northern Territory, Australia. Alcheringa 1(1): 59-69.

See also Glaessner, 1984, for further sources. Note that in my analysis I have combined data from several localities in central Australia. I have followed current opinion (S. Conway Morris, pers. comm.; also Brasier, 1979) in considering the form Arumberia as a dubiofossil at best, and have not included it here. (For a review of its distribution and arguments for its organic nature, see Bland, 1984.)

FINNMARK, NORWAY:

Farmer, J., Vidal, G., Moczydlowska, M., Strauss, H., Ahlberg, P., and Siedlecka, A. 1992. Ediacaran fossils from the Innerelv Member (late Proterozoic) of the Tanafjorden area, northeastern Finnmark. Geological Magazine 129(2): 181-195.

Personal observations on specimens collected in 1994, now in collections of Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

CHARNWOOD FOREST, ENGLAND:

Boynton, H. E. 1978. Fossils from the Pre-Cambrian of Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. Mercian Geologist 6(4): 291-296.

Ford, T. D. 1980. The Ediacaran fossils of Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. Proceedings of the Geological Association 91 (1-2): 81-83.

NEWFOUNDLAND:

Misra, S. B. 1969. Late Precambrian (?) fossils from southeastern Newfoundland. Geological Society of America Bulletin 80(11): 2133-2140.

Anderson, M. M., and Conway Morris, S. 1982. A review, with descriptions of four unusual forms, of the soft-bodied fauna of the Conception and St. John's Groups (Late Precambrian), Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. Proceedings of the Third North American Paleontological Convention 1: 1-8.

Runnegar, B. 1995. Vendobionta or Metazoa? Developments in understanding th Ediacara "fauna." Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 195 (1-3): 303-318.

Seilacher, A. 1992. Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution. Journal of the Geological Society, London 149: 607-613.

This assemblage has yet to be well characterized, and most of its distinctive fossils are not formally described. Seilacher's paper figures several forms not yet published anywhere else, to my knowledge. I have included in this analysis the "medusoid" form Aspidella; this has often been considered a pseudofossil or dubiofossil, but the most recent studies state that it is a true fossil (J. Gehling and G. Narbonne, unpublished, cited in Runnegar, B. 1995). The specimens that I have seen do not contradict the hypothesis that Aspidella is a genuine fossil.

NAMIBIA:

Germs, G. J. B. 1973a. A reinterpretation of Rangea schneiderhorni and the discovery of a related new fossil from the Nama Group, South West Africa. Lethaia 6(1): 1-10.

Grotzinger, J. P., Bowring, S. A., Saylor, B. Z., and Kaufman, A. J. 1995. Biostratigraphic and geochronologic constraints on early animal evolution. Science 270: 598-604.

Hahn, G. and Pflug, H.-D. 1985. Polypenartige Organismen aus dem Jung-Präkambrium (Nama-Gruppe) von Namibia. Geologica et Palaeontologica 19: 1-13.

Hahn, G. and Pflug, H.-D. 1988. Zweischalige Organismen aus dem Jung-Präkambrium (Vendium) von Namibia (SW-Afrika). Geologica et Palaeontologica 22: 1-19.

Pflug, H.-D. 1972. Zur Fauna der Nama-Schichten in Südwest-Afrika; III, Erniettomorpha, Bau und Systematik. Palaeontographica, Abteilung A, 39 (4-6), 134-168.

Earlier papers of H.-D. Pflug describe many more fossils from Namibia, but I consider Pflug's taxonomy to be highly oversplit, notably in his descriptions of the "erniettomorphs." In my own work I have followed later revisers of Pflug's work in synonymizing his "erniettomorph" genera into one genus, Ernietta.

SOUTH CHINA:

Chen Y. 1994. Sinian. In: Yin H. (ed.) The Palaeobiogeography of China. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 27-34.

Sun Wei-guo. 1986. Late Precambrian pennatulids (sea pens) from the eastern Yangtze Gorge, China: Paracharnia gen. nov. Precambrian Research 31: 361-375.

This is a composite of localities on the South China craton.

NORTH CHINA:

Chen Jinbao, Zhang Huimin, Xing Yusheng, and Ma Guogan. 1981. On the Upper Precambrian (Sinian Suberathem) in China. Precambrian Research 15: 207-228.

Chen Y. 1994. Sinian. In: Yin H. (ed.) The Palaeobiogeography of China. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 27-34.

Wang Hongzhen, Lin Baoyu, and Liu Xiaoliang. 1984. Cnidarian fossils from the Sinian system of China and their stratigraphic significance. Palaeontographica Americana 54: 136-140.

This is also a composite of two localities: Liaononing and Jixi. Chen (1994) cites various medusoids from northern China, named Liaonanella, Jinxianaella and Daliania, that have been described only in an abstract published in Chinese. I have been unable to confirm these reports and have not included them here. Chen also cites earlier work that indicates that the "frondlike fossil" Mashania (figured in Wang et al. 1984) is in fact an artifact of metamorphism; hence I have not used it in this analysis.

SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES/NORTH MEXICO:

Horodyski, R. J. 1991. Late Proterozoic megafossils from southern Nevada. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 26(5): A163.

Langille, G. B. 1974. Problematic calcareous fossils from the Stirling Quartzite, Funeral Mountains, Inyo County, California. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 6: 204-205.

McMenamin, M. A. S.1996. Ediacaran biota from Sonora, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 93: 4990-4993.

Runnegar, B. Personal communication, 1996.

Recently, McMenamin (1996) documented a biota of Ediacara-type fossils from the Clemente Formation of Sonora, Mexico. I did not include these forms, for the same reason that I did not include the fossils from the intertillites of northern Canada: they predate the majority of Ediacaran biotas by at least 50 million years. In fact, its discoverer states that it is the oldest Ediacaran biota of all. While the problem of loose age constraints on many of these biotas introduces unavoidable noise into the data, including obviously and markedly diachronous biotas would only have exacerbated the problem. Note, however, that both this paper and Horodyski's abstract report forms referable to Ernietta; including McMenamin's fossils would not have altered the results of the analysis substantially.

Langille (1974) describe calcareous cone-shaped fossils from Late Precambrian rocks of the Death Valley region in eastern California. These do fall within the appropriate time period, and I believe them sufficiently different from Cloudina to warrant designation as a new taxon.

NORTH CAROLINA:

Cloud, P. E., Wright, J., and Glover, L. 1976. Traces of animal life from 620-million-year-old rocks in North Carolina. American Scientist 64 (July-August): 396-406.

Gibson, G. G., Teeter, S. A., and Fedonkin, M. A. 1984. Ediacarian fossils from the Carolina slate belt, Stanly County, North Carolina. Geology 12: 387-390.

Seilacher, A. 1993. Early multicellular life: Late Proterozoic fossils and the Cambrian explosion. In: Bengtson, S. (ed.) Early Life on Earth. Nobel Symposium No. 84. Columbia University Press, New York. pp. 389-400.

Cloud et al. (1976) described Vermiforma antiqua as long, tubular, wormlike organisms; Glaessner (1984) suggested that they might be sabelliditids. I did not include them in the analysis, as they appear to predate the Ediacaran biotas considerably. Seilacher (1993) figured forms called "Vendospica diplograptiformis," which are interpreted as either impressions of colonial organisms resembling graptolites, or as tool marks left by such organisms (the exact interpretation is not clear from the paper.) The fossil is in need of formal description (note that "Vendospica diplograptiformis" has no official nomenclatural standing at this time).