Stratigraphic setting and age of the complex Tappania-bearing Proterozoic fossil biota of Siberia

A microfossil assemblage has been found in the widely spaced (300 km apart) Baikit and Katanga areas (inner Siberian Platform) in stratigraphically coeval strata in the lower part of the petroliferous Kamo Group (Riphean). It comprises complex protists Tappania plana Yin; acritarchs Valeria lophostriata Jank., Satka sp., Lophosphaeridium sp., Pulvinosphaeridium sp., and Miroedichia sp.; porous vesicles of Tasmanites sp. and Osculosphaera sp.; vesicles with anastomosing processes, and spiral filaments of Obruchevella and Glomovertella. Siberian fossil microbiota is considerably more diverse than biota with Tappania protists known in Australia and China. A taxonomically similar fossil biota found 1500 km northeast of the well-studied Riphean section in the Olenek uplift suggests that the host rocks, too, are stratigraphically coeval. This permits refining the age of remains of the first complex eukaryotes from the inner platform and is an additional correlation criterion for the lower Kamo Group.