Chapter 7: Paleoecology of the Precambrian of Northwestern North America

The purpose of this paper is to provide a general, current overview of the Precambrian fossil occurrences in North America. This work, a sequel to earlier compilations for Canada (See Hofmann, 1971, 1972, 1981a), has been expanded to encompass the remainder of North America, for which similar compilations are not available (except for the western United States and northwestern Mexico: Horodyski, 1993a, b). On the other hand, several comprehensive monographs on the global Precambrian paleontological record (Schopf, 1983; Schopf and Klein, 1992; Bengtson, 1994) provide impressive detail with global coverage of all aspects of Precambrian paleobiology and evolution. Another topical volume that includes chapters on Precambrian stromatolite reef complexes is Geldsetzer et al. (1989). All the above references have extensive documentation and bibliographies. The present inventory is meant to complement this previous work by providing a synoptic view of North American occurrences in map form (Fig. 4.1, in pocket; Fig. 4.2–4.13), and some observations on the content of the database. This perspective allows a better continent-wide overview of geographic data than tabulated data dispersed in various publications; moreover, lateral relationships of areas where previous work has been concentrated, and those where data are not available, are more readily visualized. This continental overview should be helpful for those contemplating future paleontological work in the Precambrian sequences of North America. Fossils and possible fossils have been reported from at least 383 formations in North America attributed to the Precambrian. These 383 occurrences, known up to mid-1996 from Canada, Greenland, U.S.A., and Mexico,

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Chapter 7: Paleoecology of the Precambrian of Northwestern North America

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