Agradecimentos: The authors thank FAPESP (Grants 2010/19584-4; 2010/02677-0, 2015/24608-3), CNPq (Grants 490234/2005-4 and 444070/2014-1) and PROPE – UNESP for funding; Viceministerio de Minas y Energía de Paraguay and Industria Nacional del Cemento, specially the geologist Alberto Arias Caceres,...

Agradecimentos: The authors thank FAPESP (Grants 2010/19584-4; 2010/02677-0, 2015/24608-3), CNPq (Grants 490234/2005-4 and 444070/2014-1) and PROPE – UNESP for funding; Viceministerio de Minas y Energía de Paraguay and Industria Nacional del Cemento, specially the geologist Alberto Arias Caceres, for support during the field work. This work was made with institutional support of the São Paulo State University. The editor and two anonymous reviewers offered constructive criticism and detailed reviews of the manuscript, and are acknowledged. We also thank to Felipe Daniel de Castro Sales for the illustrations represented in Fig. 5, Fig. 6. L.V. Warren, M.G. Simões, C. Riccomini, P.C. Boggiani, and A.N. Sial are fellows of the CNPq

Abstract: The intriguing Ediacaran fossil Namacalathus is described from limestones of the Tagatiya Guazú Formation, Itapucumi Group, Paraguay. This is the fifth occurrence of the genus in the Ediacaran geological record. The Paraguayan Namacalathus specimens are preserved as partially complete...

Abstract: The intriguing Ediacaran fossil Namacalathus is described from limestones of the Tagatiya Guazú Formation, Itapucumi Group, Paraguay. This is the fifth occurrence of the genus in the Ediacaran geological record. The Paraguayan Namacalathus specimens are preserved as partially complete spheroidal cups with an opening at the top and thin walled stems. The remains of this soft-calcified globe-shaped organism occur as sparse disarticulated parautochthonous fragments within bioclastic deposits dominated by Cloudina shells with subordinate Corumbella fragments. The co-occurrence of these three skeletal metazoan species in the same environmental context attests that the diversity of the Paraguayan accumulations is ecologically comparable to the typical skeletal assemblage of the Nama Group. The discovery of new samples of Namacalathus in the Itapucumi Group also indicates that this genus presented a broader paleobiogeographic distribution than previously thought and, in the same way as Cloudina, it represents a low latitude, shallow water metazoan of the Ediacaran Gondwana

CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ

490234/2005-4; 444070/2014-1

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP

2010/19584-4; 2010/02677-0; 2015/24608-3

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