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Other Localities:
The following localities were not included in the analysis, because the
fossils found there are either entirely endemic, poorly preserved,
doubtfully biogenic, or (usually) some combination of the above.
CANADA:
- Hofmann, H. J., Narbonne, G. M., and Aitken, J. D. 1990. Ediacaran
remains from intertillite beds in northwestern Canada. Geology 18(12):
1199-1202.
The fossils described here, while probably biogenic, substantially predate
other known "Ediacara-type fossils," and hence were not included.
INDIA:
- Bhatt, D. K. 1990. (A comment on the paper, "Ediacaran medusoids
from the Krol Formation, Naini Tal Syncline, Lesser Himalaya" by V. K.
Mathur and Ravi Shanker. . . ) Journal of the Geological Society of India 36:
536-540.
- Maithy, P. K. 1992. Palaeobiology of Vindhyan. Palaeobotanist 40: 52-72.
- Mathur, V. K. and Shanker, R. 1989. First record of Ediacaran fossil
elements from the Krol Formation, Naini Tal Syncline. Journal of the
Geological Society of India 34: 245-254.
- Mathur, V. K. and Shanker, R. 1990. Ediacaran medusoids from the Krol
Formation, Naini Tal Syncline, Lesser Himalaya. Journal of the Geological
Society of India 36: 74-78.
- Raha, P. K., Moitra, A. K., Das Sarma, D. C., Ashok Kumar, P., and
Rama Rao, M. R. 1991. (Abstract) Search for microfossils in the Bhima and
Kaladgi-Badami Sequence of south India. Records of the Geological Survey
of India 124(2): 10.
- Shanker, R. and Mathur, V. K. 1992. Precambrian-Cambrian sequence
in Krol belt and additional Ediacaran fossils. Geophytology 22: 27-39.
- Sharma, M., Shukla, M., and Venkatachala, B. S. 1992. Metaphyta and
Metazoan fossils from Precambrian sediments of India: a critique. The
Palaeobotanist 40: 8-51.
- Shukla, M., Sharma, M., Bansal, R. and Venkatachala, B. S. 1991. Pre-
Ediacaran fossil assemblages from India and their evolutionary
significance. Memoirs of the Geological Society of India 20: 169-179.
Four localities in India with putative "Ediacara fossils" are reported. The
pre-Ediacaran assemblages from central India (e.g. Shukla et al., 1991) are
not well studied or named, not clearly figured, and in any case are far older
than the scope of this study. The same applies to the pre-Vendian forms
reviewed by Maithy (1992), such as Misraea, Ramapurea, and
Amjohrea; some of these are more likely algal, similar to the
widespread carbonaceous form Chuaria.
The putative Vendian-age fossils in north India reprted by Mathur and
Shanker (1989 et seq.) have been debated
in the Indian literature (e.g. Bhatt, 1990; and further comments and
replies). Some are probably not biogenic; others may be (reviewed in
Sharma et al.,1992). The finding needs confirmation and further study, as
does the report of medusoids and Dickinsonia from Rajasthan (Maithy,
1992).
A new locality in the Halkal Shale, near Kolkur in southern India,
is reported to yield Ediacara-type medusoids (Raha et al., 1991), but
these forms have not been confirmed or figured, to my knowledge.
IRAN:
- Hahn, G., and Pflug, H. D. 1980. Ein neuer Medusen-Fund aus dem
Jung-Präkambrium von Zentral-Iran. Senckenbergiana lethaea
60(4/6): 449-461.
- Personal observations of fossils in the collection of Dr. B. Hamdi, 1993.
See also Glaessner, 1984, who tentatively identified Charnia and
another unidentified medusoid. The fossils that I have seen appear to be
biogenic; however, the specimens identified as Charnia that I have
examined did not appear to be Charnia and may be molds of shelly
fossils, suggesting a Cambrian date for at least some of these fossils. The
medusoid Persimedusites is not known from anywhere else. More study is
clearly warranted.
IRELAND:
- Crimes, T. P., Insole, A., and Williams, B. P. J. 1995. A rigid-bodied
Ediacaran biota from Upper Cambrian strata in Co. Wexford, Eire. Geological
Journal 30: 89-109.
These fossils, in the genera Ediacaria and Nimbia, appear
biogenic, and are important for their implications for survival of Ediacaran
lineages and for taphonomy. However, they fall far outside the temporal
range of this study.
LAKE BAIKAL:
- Personal observations in collections of the Paleontological Institute of
the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. 1993.
See also sources for Russia as a whole, as well as Glaessner (1984). The
material I have examined personally, of a putative saclike fossil named
Baikalina, is possibly biogenic but not convincing, and in any case is
endemic to the Baikal locality (although it somewhat resembles the form
Ernietta from Namibia). It also closely resembles the central Australian
form Arumberia, which, however, is a dubiofossil at best (see
notes for central Australia).
MOROCCO:
- Houzay, J.-P. 1979. Empreintes attribuables à des
méduses dans la série de base de l'Adoudounien
(Précambrien terminal de l'Anti-Atlas, Maroc). Géologie
Méditerranéenne 6(3): 379-384.
These medusoids have no obvious counterparts elsewhere.
RIVER MAYA, SIBERIA:
Listed by Glaessner (1984: fig. 1.8; p. 88). The enigmatic large fossils
Suvorovella and Majella from this locality are usually
considered algae, but some Russian workers apparently consider them to
be medusoids. I have not seen any original material from this locality
myself, and find no reason to include these reported finds at this time.
SARDINIA:
- Debrenne, F., and Naud, G. 1981. Méduses et traces fossiles supposées
précambriennes dans la formation de San Vito, Sarrabus, Sud-Est de la
Sardaigne. Bulletin de la Societé Géologique de France, 7e Série 23(1): 23-31.
This is a report of a single "medusoid" taxon, Ichnusia, so far not
found anywhere else.
SOUTH AMERICA:
- Hahn, G., Hahn, R.; Leonardos, O. H.; Pflug, H. D.; Walde, D. H. G. 1982.
Körperlich erhaltene Scyphozoen-Reste aus dem Jungpräkambrium
Brasiliens. Geologica et Palaeontologica 16: 1-18.
See also Conway Morris et al., 1990 for a review of cloudiniid fossils from
South America. Otherwise, only one putative Vendian fossil is known from
South America, the organic,
tubelike Corumbella, a proposed fossil scyphozoan polyp. As far as I
am aware it is not known from anywhere else.
SPAIN:
- Dozy, J. J. 1984. A Late Precambrian Ediacara-type fossil from Galicia
(NW Spain). Geologie en Mijnbouw 63: 71-74.
This is a report of a single "frondlike" fossil; while I believe that it is
biogenic, it is too poorly preserved to identify.
SWEDEN:
- 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.
Seilacher (1993) figures a number of forms that he considers to be the internal
sand skeletons of polypoid organisms, from the Mickwitzia Sandstone of
Sweden (Lower Cambrian) as well as the Ordovician of Jordan. Most of these
forms postdate the Vendian are are not considered in this analysis, but
Seilacher also considers that some Vendian fossils may be of this type.
I have not included these forms here, since an explanation of these forms
as artefactual still seems likely.
WALES:
- Cope, J. C. W. 1977. An Ediacara-type fauna from South Wales. Nature
268: 624.
- Cope, J. C. W. 1982. Precambrian fossils of the Carmarthen area, Dyfed.
Nature in Wales, New Series 1(2): 11-16.
Fossils here are restricted to simple "medusoids." A possible occurrence of
the more complex fossil Tribrachidium was discounted by Glaessner
(1984; see general sources above).
WEST AFRICA:
- Bertrand-Sarfati, J., Moussine-Pouchkine, A, Amard, B., and Aït
Kaci Ahmed, A. 1995. First Ediacaran fauna found in western Africa and
evidence for an Early Cambrian glaciation. Geology 23: 133-136.
This paper reports fossils from the Taoudenni Basin of West Africa; they
are simple medusoids referred to Medusinites and Nimbia. The
medusoids are quite nondescript, and their age is uncertain; it is possible
that they are older than most of the Ediacara biotas.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA:
- Cruse, T., Harris, L. B., and Rasmussen, B. 1993. The discovery of
Ediacaran trace and body fossils in the Stirling Range Formation, Western
Australia; Implications for sedimentation and deformation during the 'Pan-
African' orogenic cycle. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 40: 293-296.
The biota appears sparse. The fossils described so far are a few simple
'medusoids,' as yet unnamed.