Possible organisms similar to Ediacaran forms from the Bhander Group, Vindhyan Supergroup, Late Neoproterozoic of India

Fossil Medusoid genera resembling Ediacaria (Sprigg 1947) and Hiemalora (Fedonkin 1982) and having distinctive Ediacaran affinity have been discovered in a shale horizon occurring at the base of the Bhander Group, the uppermost unit of the Vindhyan Supergroup of central India. This is the first record of unequivocal occurrence of Ediacara-like fossils in a Proterozoic basin of the Peninsular India. This finding substantially extends the previously known biogeographic range of the Ediacaran elements to Peninsular India and further enhances their biostratigraphpic potential for correlation of the upper Vindhyans with some Ediacaran horizons of Canada, Australia, South Africa and Russian Platforms. With this extension, the representatives of the genus Ediacaria can be regarded as having a global distribution in places now occupying both lower and higher latitudes. The genus Hiemalora, which appeared to be endemic to the Russian block, also has wide biogeographic coverage. These fossils assign an Ediacaran (550-543 Ma) age for the host Lakheri Limestone and suggest that the Lakheri unit was deposited within 6 million years of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary. They also support and refine the traditional view of the Late Neoproterozoic age for the lower Bhander Group. These fossils provide positive stratigraphic clues for locating the Precambiran-Cambrian boundary strata in the overlying Lakheri-Sirbu segment of the Vindhyan sequence. They also indicate a depositional environment typical of a muddy shallow shelf setting above storm wave-base. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.