Keele Research Repository

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>New occurrences of flask-shaped and envelope-bearing microfossils, including the predominantly Cambrian taxon <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic>, are reported from new localities, as well as from earlier in time (Ediacaran) than previously known. The stratigraphic range of <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> extends into the Cambrian System, where it had a cosmopolitan distribution. This newly reported Ediacaran record includes areas from Norway (Baltica), Newfoundland (Avalonia) and Namibia (adjacent to the Kalahari Craton), and puts the oldest global occurrence of <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> in the Indreelva Member (&lt; 563 Ma) of the Stáhpogieddi Formation on the Digermulen Peninsula, Arctic Norway. Although <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> is rare within the assemblage, these new occurrences together with previously reported occurrences from India and Poland, suggest a potentially widespread palaeogeographic distribution of <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> through the middle–late Ediacaran interval. A new flask-shaped microfossil <jats:italic>Lagoenaforma collaris</jats:italic> gen. et sp. nov. is also reported in horizons containing <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> from the Stáhpogieddi Formation in Norway and the Dabis Formation in Namibia, and flask-shaped fossils are also found in the Gibbett Hill Formation in Newfoundland. The <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic>–<jats:italic>Lagoenaforma</jats:italic> association, in addition to a low-diversity organic-walled microfossil assemblage, occurs in the strata postdating the Shuram carbon isotope excursion, and may eventually be of use in terminal Ediacaran biostratigraphy. These older occurrences of <jats:italic>Granomarginata</jats:italic> add to a growing record of body fossil taxa spanning the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary.</jats:p>