EXPLORING THE EDIACARAN BIOTA OF THE DIGERMULEN PENINSULA, NORTHERN NORWAY

HÖGSTRÖM, Anette E.S.¹, TAYLOR, Wendy L.², JENSEN, Sören³, EBBESTAD, Jan Ove R.⁴, HØYBERGET, Magne⁵, MEINHOLD, Guido⁶, PALACIOS, Teodoro³, NOVIS, Linn¹ and OU, Zhiji¹, (1)Tromsø University Museum, UiT, the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, N-9036, Norway, (2)Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa, (3)Área de Paleontología, Universidad de Extremadura, Avenida de Elvas s/n, Badajoz, 06006, Spain, (4)Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 22, Uppsala, SE-75236, Sweden, (5)Rennesveien 14, Mandal, N-4513, Norway, (6)Geoscience Center, University of Goettingen, Goldschmidtstr. 3, Goettingen, 37077, Germany, anette.hogstrom@uit.no

The Digermulen Peninsula in northern Norway is the only locality that has yielded Ediacara-type fossils in Scandinavia. The Peninsula exhibits an Ediacaran to Lower Ordovician succession consisting of roughly 3000 m of siliciclastic deposits formed in a foreland basin marginal to Baltica. In 2011 a restudy of the Ediacaran deposits (1000 m thick) was launched resulting in new finds that promise to establish the Digermulen Peninsula as a significant new Ediacaran biota locality. First described in the 1990´s the assemblage is dominated by medusoid-type fossils, such as Cyclomedusa, Ediacaria?, Beltanella and Nimbia? now possibly reinterpreted as taphomorphs of the broadly defined Aspidella as exemplified by the Fermeuse assemblage in Newfoundland. Previous field seasons have produced abundant new material of discoidal forms (tentatively Aspidella), the lowest in stratigraphic proximity to the glacial Mortensnes diamictite (tentatively c. 580 Ma). Recent fieldwork during the summer of 2015 yielded the first specimen of a multi-vaned Ediacara-type fossil from the Innerelva Member of the Stáhpogiedde Formation not far from where the first discoidal fossils were found in the 90´s. Reconstructed to reach approximately 7.5 – 8 cm above the sediment surface this organism appears to have a roughly spherical shape with three or more vanes, but more detailed study is needed. We know little of the holdfast structure but it appears to possess a generalized Aspidella-like morphology, emphasizing the variety of organisms that may have had very similar holdfasts. In addition to Aspidella sp., well-preserved Hiemalora are present in these beds. Another important find are several specimens of Palaeopascichnus from near the base of the Innerelva Member making them the oldest non-stromatolite macroscopic fossils in Scandinavia. Future work for the Digermulen Early Life Research Group will focus on extensive excavation and sampling of this important interval to increase the understanding of the Ediacaran record on the Peninsula.

Session No. 338

T152. Geobiology of Critical Transitions: Integrating Fossils, Proxies, and Models III

Wednesday, 4 November 2015: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM

Room 325/326 (Baltimore Convention Center)

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 47, No. 7, p.851

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2015 GSA Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, USA (1-4 November 2015)

EXPLORING THE EDIACARAN BIOTA OF THE DIGERMULEN PENINSULA, NORTHERN NORWAY