LATE EDIACARAN SKELETAL BODY FOSSIL ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE NAVALPINO ANTICLINE, CENTRAL SPAIN

Mineralized fossils have been described from late Ediacaran rocks all over the world, and have been interpreted as the first metazoans capable of secreting a mineralized skeleton. Among these early biomineralizers, the tubular Cloudina has a cosmopolitan distribution. It often occurs in association with other mineralizing organisms, such as Sinotubulites and Namacalathus, which show a more restricted, and seemingly non-overlapping, distribution. Many aspects of the biology of these organisms remain poorly known, in particular the structure and composition of the ecosystems they formed part of. Here we report a diverse fossil assemblage from the Ibor Group of Villarta de los Montes of the Central Iberian Zone, Spain. The assemblage includes the first material of Sinotubulites baimatuoensis from Spain, which is found in association with Cloudina hartmanae and Cloudina carinata. Also found are small tubular fossils and a flask-shaped form comparable to Protolagena. Among previously described assemblages of late Ediacaran skeletal fossils, the Villarta assemblage, unique in Europe, most closely compares to that from the Dengying Formation of South China.