Cambrian organic microfossils at the border area of the East- and West-European platforms (SE Poland and western Ukraine)

This paper contains palynological and stratigraphical characteristics of the selected Cambrian sections encountered in the basement of the north-eastern part of the Carpathian Foredeep and the Outer Carpathian margin in south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine, as well as verification of the stratigraphical position of rocks recognised so far in several sections in western Ukraine. The acritarch assemblages of the Cambrian System Series 2 are dominated by species of the characteristic early Cambrian genus Skiagia. The Cambrian Series 3 beds are documented by the assemblages with numerous specimens of the Adara alea, Cristallinium cambriense, Heliosphaeridium notatum, Eliasum llaniscum, Multiplicisphaeridium martae, and Comasphaeridium longispinosum. Furongian sediments are evidenced by strongly taxonomically diversified assemblages with large quantities of acritarchs, containing genera Timofeevia, Vulcanisphaera, Ninadiacrodium, Pirea, Leiofusa, Lusatia, or Polygonium, as well as taxa characterized by diacrodial symmetry. These assemblages are dominated by such genera, as: Dasydiacrodium or Acanthodiacrodium, and also by specimens with large polar opening of the central body, belonging to acritarchs of the “galeate” group. Within the studied Cambrian sediments, nine acritarch assemblages of differing composition were distinguished. These assemblages were correlated with faunistic zones. Ages younger than Palaeozoic, identified in some of the analysed Ukrainian sections, were determined basing on very well preserved assemblages of spores and pollen.