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Journal of Paleontology

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Tubular Compression Fossils from the Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia

¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, <pacohen{at}fas.harvard.edu>, <jpwilson{at}fas.harvard.edu>
² Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, <bradley{at}fas.harvard.edu>, <aknoll{at}oeb.harvard.edu>
³ Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91125, <grotz{at}gps.caltech.edu>, <joannah{at}its.caltech.edu>
⁴ Área de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, 06071 Badajoz, Spain, <soren{at}unex.es>
⁵ Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena 91125, <jabelson{at}biochem.ucsf.edu>
⁶ NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 91109, <khand{at}jpl.nasa.gov>
⁷ Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside 92521, <glove{at}ucr.edu>
⁸ Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7803, N-5020 Bergen, Norway, <Nicola.Mcloughlin{at}geo.uib.no>
⁹ Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology Celsiusstrasse 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany, <pmeister{at}mpi-bremen.de>
¹⁰ Department of Geology, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue 95616-8605, <shepard{at}geology.ucdavis.edu>
¹¹ Department of Geology and Geophysiscs, Texas A&M, College Station, 77843, <tice{at}geo.tamu.edu>

Abundant tubular macrofossils occur in finely laminated siltstones and shales of the 548–542 Ma Schwarzrand Subgroup, Nama Group, Namibia. The Nama tubes occur in both the Vingerbreek and Feldschuhhorn members commonly in dense populations and always in fine-grained, lower shore-face lithologies deposited below fair-weather wave base. The tubes are preserved mostly as compressed casts and molds that range in width from 0.6 to 2.1 mm; apparently incomplete specimens reach lengths up to 10 cm. All specimens show sinuous bending and occasional brittle fracture, indicating an original construction of strong but flexible organic matter. Feldschuhhorn specimens preserve fine longitudinal pleats or folds that record pliant organic walls, but the older Vingerbreek populations do not. Similarly, some specimens in the Feldschuhhorn Member display branching, while Vingerbreek tubes do not. The abundant Feldschuhhorn tubes are assigned to the widespread Ediacaran problematicum Vendotaenia antiqua; however, the distinctive Vingerbreek population remains in open nomenclature. The most abundant fossils in Nama rocks, these tubes resemble populations in Ediacaran successions from Russia, China, Spain, and elsewhere. Beyond their local importance, then, such tubes may turn out to be the most abundant record of Ediacaran life.

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