Nature 302, 606 - 607 (14 April 1983); doi:10.1038/302606a0

Late Proterozoic Brioverian microfossils from France: taxonomic affinity and implications of plankton productivity

Catherine Mansuy^* & Gonzalo Vidal^†

^*Centre Armoricain d'Etude Structurale des Socles, Institut de Géologie, Université de Rennes, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
^†University of Lund, Micropalaeontological Laboratory, Kemicentrum, Box 740, S-220 07 Lund 7, Sweden

Fossil microbial communities of Precambrian age are divided into two major categories of benthic and planktonic associ-ations. Although some mixing of both categories occurs in transitional inshore and lagoonal biotas, morphological com-plexity is the distinctive attribute of planktonic associations. Microfossils from late Proterozoic Brioverian rocks (670−640 Myr) in France are comparable to the late Proterozoic micro-fossil taxa Sphaerocongregus and Bavlinella which were repor-ted from localities in North America, Scandinavia, Greenland and elsewhere. The microfossils in question are morphologically comparable to certain extant chroococcalean cyanobacterial taxa (Gomphosphaeria, Coelosphaerium, Microcystis). We contend that the fossil microorganisms parallel their supposed extant counterparts not only in that they display externally undifferentiable morphologies, but also in that massive occur-rences can in both cases be attributed to eutrophication of waters.

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