Where: Western Australia, Australia (21.2° S, 119.7° E: paleocoordinates 0.0° N, 0.0° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

When: Apex Chert Formation, Paleoarchean (3600.0 - 3200.0 Ma)

• A maximum age for the Apex chert of -3470 Ma is constrained by U-Pb zircon ages (3465 + 3 Ma and 3471 + 5 Ma) from the stratigraphically underlying Duffer Formation (Fig.1)(15). A minimum age for the fossiliferous rocks of -3460 Ma is provided by a U-Pb zircon date of 3458 + 1.9 Ma for the immediately overlying Panorama Formation (Fig. 1) (15). Thus, the age of the fossiliferous Apex chert is evidently about 3465 Ma.

Environment/lithology: marine; chert

Size class: microfossils

Preservation: soft parts, original carbon

Primary reference: J. W. Schopf. 1993. Microfossils of the Early Archean Apex Chert: New Evidence of the Antiquity of Life. Science 260:640-646 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 192064: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 06.03.2018

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)