Abstract

Sediments of Ediacaran age have recently been recognized in the Krol Belt (NW Lesser Himalaya, India) with the discovery of pre-Ediacaran and Ediacaran biotas, carbon isotopic excursions matching the global curve and evidence for one Neoproterozoic glacial event. Other data include evidence for termination of the Krol algal-stromatolitic carbonate cycle in Late Proterozoic and deposition of phosphorite, phosphatic stromatolites similar to Tommotian taxa, and diversification of Small Shelly Fossils (SSF) of Tommotian/Meischucunian Zone 1 in Lower Tal Formation. Recently, Riphean–Ediacaran organic-walled microfossils, stromatolites and sponge spicules (monaxon) have been recovered. The link between the decrease in microbial-induced carbonate sedimentation and the decline of large Riphean stromatolites is recorded in the inner sedimentary belt (Deoban–Gangolihat). The first appearance of complex organic-walled microfossils and acanthomorphic acritarchs is recorded in the Blaini–Infrakrol sediments along with possible Ediacaran soft-bodied metazoans and metaphytes in the Krol Formation. In India, the Late Proterozoic base occurs at the bottom of a pink, microbial limestone in the Blaini Formation, and the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary occurs somewhere in the Lower Tal Formation. Ediacaran metazoans occur above glacial deposits assigned to the Varangian/Marinoan/Blainian and below the first occurrence of SSF (Meischucunian zone I), in the lowermost Cambrian.