Early Cambrian Small Shelly Fossils, Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments in the Southwest Taoudeni Basin, West Africa

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Early Cambrian small shelly fossils have been recovered from late Precambrian to early Paleozoic strata of the southwestern Taoudeni Basin, Senegal and Guinea, West Africa. Folded and faulted lateral correlatives of these strata are incorporated in the polyorogenic (late Precambrian to late Paleozoic) Mauritanide fold belt. P.I. will conduct a detailed sampling program of the fossiliferous strata and undertake paleontological and sedimentological analyses to further document the faunas and to determine the environments of deposition of the containing strata. The project will add to our knowledge of the stratigraphy of Paleozoic basins and fold belts in West Africa. It will refine our understanding of the distribution of earliest Cambrian small shelly fossils and help to test previously proposed provincial schemes. The project will also result in interpretations of the environments in which these organisms lived, died and accummulated as fossils.