Tonian microfossils from subsurface shales in Botswana

Shale samples recovered from the Masetlheng Pan-1 well, drilled in western Botswana, contain abundant, moderately well preserved, and modestly diverse microfossils. The fossils are assigned to eleven taxa, several reported for the first time from Africa. Distinctive acritarch taxa suggest a late Tonian age for the thick siliciclastic succession that lies unconformably beneath sandstones of the upper Ediacaran-lower Cambrian Nama Group. Masetlheng Pan-1 rocks, therefore, record the major events of Damara sedimentation and tectonics, hidden beneath surficial sands of western Botswana.