EDIACARAN BODY FOSSILS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF A NEOPROTEROZOIC-EARLY CAMBRIAN FAUNA

Ediacaran fauna have been known from the Carolina Terrane since the 1970's, yet the paucity of data precluded correlation with other peri-Gondwanan exotic terranes and with Ediacaran biotas worldwide. New Ediacaran body fossil specimens have been recovered from the Albemarle Group of Stanly County, North Carolina; Sekwia excentrica, from the Floyd Church Formation and ?Inaria from the unnamed mudstone member of the Cid Formation. Together with previously published reports of Pteridinium carolinaensis, Swartpuntia and Aspidella, these new specimens give a more complete picture of the Ediacaran biota of Neoproterozoic-Early Cambrian metasediments in the Carolina Terrane.

Using PAUP 4.0b10, results of parsimony analysis show fauna from the unnamed mudstone Member of the Cid Formation have affinity with the Nama Assemblage, yet fauna from the Floyd Church Formation have affinity with White Sea Assemblage. Combined together, the entire North Carolina Ediacaran biota is a White Sea Assemblage. The White Sea Assemblage is distinct from the assemblage preserved in the Avalon Terrane, which is often correlated with the Carolina Terrane.

Sample size is still rather small, so assemblage groupings could be a function of depositional environment, paleogeography, age, facies control or preservational bias. However, these results indicate that during the late Neoproterozoic, the Carolina Terrane was faunally distinct from the Avalon Terrane. This supports recent conclusions by Hibbard et al., (2002 Earth Science Reviews, 57, 299-339) and others that the Carolina Terrane was paleogeographically separate from Avalon.