New Microorganisms from the Aphebian Gunflint Iron Formation, Ontario

Abstract

Two new algal taxa are described from the approximately 2,000 m.y. old Gunflint Iron Formation, Ontario. Leptoteichos golubicii, n. gen. et sp., were relatively large (5-31 mu m) spherical plankters living in the water column above the central portions of the Gunflint basin. Post-mortem degradation processes have acted on this taxon to produce a "spot cell" organization similar to that exhibited by younger putatively eukaryotic cells; however, L. golubicii is here placed among the Algae incertae sedis and considered to be a probable cyanophyte. Megalytrum diacenum, n. gen. et sp., is the preserved sheath of a colonial chroococcalean blue-green alga. It constitutes an allochthonous element of the algal chert facies microbiota of the Gunflint Iron Formation.