Acritarchs from the Buen Formation (Lower Cambrian), North Greenland

Abstract

Siliciclastic sediments of the Buen Formation of North Greenland yield the earliest Cambrian fossils known from North Greenland, with the exception of cyanobacteria described from dolomites of the underlying Portfjeld Formation (see Peel, this report). The fauna is dominated by olenellid and nevadiid trilobites indicating an Early Cambrian age (Poulsen, 1974; Blaker, this report) but hyolithids, bradoriids, sponges and other fossils also occur. Bergstrom & Peel (this report) described trace fossils from the Buen Formation. Of particular interest is the recent discovery of lightly skeletised arthropods comprising an assemblage similar to that of the Middle Cambrian Burgess shale of Canada (Conway Morris et al., 1987).