Upper proterozoic micro fossils from the summer isles northwestern scotland uk
Zhongying, Z.
Palaeontology 25(3): 443-460
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-0239 Accession: 006869300
A structurally preserved and distinctive microbiota composed of sphaeromorphic acritarchs and filamentous microfossils was recently recovered from shales of the Aultbea Formation, Torridon Group, on Tanera Beg, Summer Isles. The dominant sphaeromorphs comprise single vesicles, plurivesicular aggregates and envelopes containing up to several tens of vesicles. They closely resemble those occurring in shales of the Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia. Detailed study of the variety of sphaeromorphs has revealed that they probably represent stages in the life cycle of a single species of coccoidal, endospore-forming pleurocapsalean blue-green alga TORRIDONIPHYCUS lepidus gen. et sp. nov. The filaments are hollow tubes ranging from 1.5 up to 53.0 .mu.m wide. They are assigned to the taxa Eomycetopsis crassiusculum (Horodyski) comb. nov. [Siphonophycus crassiusculum], Siphonophycus beltensis Horodyski, Siphonophycus sp. and unnamed larger filaments. Most of them are interpreted as representing discarded sheaths of filamentous oscillatoriacean cyanobacteria and are similar to those preserved in shales of the lower Belt Supergroup in the Little Belt Mountains, Montana, USA, and the Dismal Lakes Group in Arctic Canada. This microbiota is apparently of cyanophyte affinity. The low taxonomic diversity and high dominance of a few species may indicate an unusual and restricted aquatic ecosystem.