Ediacaran fossils from the lnnerelv Member (late Proterozoic) of the Tanafjorden area, northeastern Finnmark

An Ediacaran assemblage dominated by an unidentified species of 1947,along with species of Sprigg 1947, Sprigg 1947, Fedonkin 1982, and Fedonkin is described the first time from Innerelv of the Formation exposed in coastal outcrops west of on Peninsula, in northeastern Finnmark, northern Norway. The fossil assemblage is dominated by discoidal which share certain affinities with the cosmopolitan genera. and However, our specimens differ from these and other discoidal Ediacaran fossils in the absence of radial sculpture. This, with a basically concentric organization, are characteristics shared with from the Dividal Group of northern Scandinavia, the White and northwestern Canada, along with discoidal from the Supergroup, Forest, England, and the Conception Group, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. Our discovery of an assemblage within the Middle Innerelv Member provides support for previous suggestions of a late age for this sequence. This conclusion is consistent with the occurrence of early taxa, including the trace fossil and the problematicalforms and in basal portions of the Lower Formation, within the same stratigraphic section. The lowest faunal in northern Scandinavia Zone, on the of the fossil in Member (Middle Sandstone of the Group, Scandinavia. is a distinctly chambered form that was probably pelagic. In contrast, and genera of the so-called plexus, comprise an informal grouping of probably benthic, taxa that radial and/or concentric organization. In light the nature of taxa, present difficulties in taxonomic interpretation and correlation, and the abundance of cyclomedusoids many Ediacaran assemblages, we suggest that the concept of the Zone,as originally for northern be broadened to include the genera the plexus, of the occurrences in the Member described herein. It is our hope that additional fieldwork provide a basis for refined taxonomic evaluations and biozonation.