Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
The occurrence of a relatively diverse shelly fauna in the Yerbal Formation of the Arroyo del Soldado Group of Uruguay is reported for the first time. This fauna is the oldest diverse shelly fauna currently known, of Upper Vendian age. It consists of Cloudina riemkeae Germs and three new genera and species, namely: Titanotheca coimbrae, Waltheria marburgensis and Soldadotubulus siderophoba, plus yet undetermined vase-shaped and discoid fossils. All species are of small size, mostly less than 5 mm. Titanotheca coimbrae is interpreted as an agglutinated foraminifer, extending the range of this group back into the Neoproterozoic. The advent of agglutination and phosphatic biomineralization are also shown to have occurred already in the Precambrian. New arguments in favour of the hypothesis that predation was the principal factor determining the advent of skeletons have been found. The discovery of the new skeletal fauna encourages the search for skeletal fossils in Vendian and older Precambrian sequences, and will probably aid in the biostratigraphic zonation of the Neoproterozoic
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.