UPPER VENDIAN ASSEMBLAGES OF CARBONACEOUS MICRO- AND MACROFOSSILS IN THE WHITE SEA REGION: SYSTEMATIC AND BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC ASPECTS

Abstract

Complexes of microfossils, consisting of spheromorphic acritarchs, and coccoid and filamentous cyanobacterial colonies, characterize distinct levels of the Upper Vendian sequence (Ediacaran) of the White Sea region. Three discrete assemblages of algal macrofossils have been recognized in this succession. The oldest assemblage is characteristic of the Lyamtsa Formation of Early Redkino age, the middle assemblage, the Verkhovka, Zimnegory and lowermost Yorga formations of Late Redkino age, and (provisionally) the youngest assemblage, preserved in the upper part of the Yorga Formation of Early Kotlin age. The Vendian succession studied here can be correlated with a similar succession in the Podolia region of Ukraine.