Late Proterozoic and Cambrian microfossils and biostratigraphy, Amadeus Basin, Central Australia

Five microfossil assemblages are recognized in the Late Proterozoic and Cambrian succession of the Amadeus Basin. The assemblages from open coastal or nearshore environments are dominated by spheroidal acritarchs and mat-building cyanobacteria, with the occasional occurrence of spinose acritarchs. Assemblages from offshore deposits consist of abundant large, diverse and morphologically complex plankters. Assemblages from hypersaline lagoons are of low diversity, dominated by one or a few taxa, and filamentous cyanobacteria are common. Those from non-marine saline lakes are dominated by benthic microorganisms. The acritarchs of the Pertatataka Fmn are remarkably abundant, diverse and well preserved. They demonstrate the potential for the use of acritarchs for the correlation of Ediacarian successions. -from Authors