| The Mistaken Point biota, the oldest and most diverse deep-water assemblage of Neoproterozoic organisms in the world, is spectacularly exposed in the Mistaken Point area of southeastern Newfoundland. Process sedimentological studies of the Mistaken Point and Trepassey formations in this area, combined with a study of the background paleocurrents, have helped to elucidate the dynamics of the paleoenvironment and the paleoecology of the fossil assemblage.; The Mistaken Point and Trepassey formations record deposition on a southeast-facing, unchanneled slope, significantly below the photic zone and storm wave base. The fine-grained, siliciclastic succession displays an overall fining- and thinning-upward trend that records progradation of a slumped slope facies over toe-of-slope deposits.; The Mistaken Point biota lived within a dynamic current regime that linked the slope to the open ocean. Contour currents and deep-water tidal currents may have carried life-sustaining resources (nutrients and/or oxygen) to these metazoans, allowing them to live successfully in this deep-water setting. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
