Microbialitos fósseis da formação Jaíba, grupo Bambuí, Minas Gerais, Brasil.

Abstract

Microbialites are carbonatic deposits, whose genesis is organosedimentary, deposited by benthic microbial mats. Microbialites are the most common fossils in rocks of the Proterozoic, worldwide and in Brazil. They exhibit morphological diversity since the oldest Archean forms, and are fundamental in studies concerning the biota and environmental aspects of past times, allowing better comprehension of biological and carbonate biosedimentary evolution through time. Microbial laminites and thrombolites of the Jaíba Formation, upper Bambuí Group, are described. Thrombolites show columnar and irregular shape, centimetric size, and are locally coalescent. Laminites, overlying the thrombolitic strata, display smooth, wavy, and crenulate synoptic relief. Five microfabrics and microfossils of two distinct morphologies, coccoidal and filamentous, were identified. Microfabrics may be of biogenic or abiogenic origin, representing different processes involved in the formation of microbialites. Thus, microbialites and microfossils of the Jaíba Formation show potential to better understand the producer biota in the context of the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, probable age of this unit, and an important moment of profound changes in biosphere, due to the diversification of metazoans.