VENDIAN MICROFOSSILS IN CHERTS FROM THE TALASSKIY ALATAU AREA

Abstract

Microfossils in the cherts of Precambrian carbonate deposits in young folded regions are found considerably more rarely than in old craton regions, like the Siberian craton and its Precambrian folded rim. Such finds are therefore of heightened intrest to paleontologists studying Precambrian microfossils. In 1984 the authors received several samples of cherts and cherty rocks from the Chichkan formation of the Talasskiy Alatau Range. Study of these under the microscope revealed previously unknown microfossils in five thin sections prepared from three of these samples. The assemblage of microfossils in the cherts from the Chichkan formation of the Talasskiy Alatau Range definitely requires further and more detailed study. This will permit a fuller description of this assemblage and its comparison with the more varied assemblage of microfossils in the Chichkan formation of the Lesser Karatau Range and also with the Precambrian microbiotas of other regions.