EARLY CAMBRIAN FORAMINIFERA FROM THE SOUTHWESTERN TAOUDENI BASIN, WEST-AFRICA

Foraminifera are rare in the Cambrian fossil record and only ten gener a have been recorded. Thirteen agglutinated specimens have been recove red recently from siltstones of the Nandoumari Formation, Mali group, in the southwestern part of the Taoudeni Basin, West Africa. These spe cimens extend the stratigraphic range of several genera. Associated fo ssils tentatively suggest an Early Cambrian, perhaps Atdabanian age fo r the foraminifera-bearing strata, although a Middle Cambrian age is p ossible. The thirteen specimens have been assigned to Sorosphaera? sp. , Hemisphaerammina sp., Ammodiscus diai new species, Tolypammina? sp., Glomospira sp., Turritellella sp., and genus and species indeterminat e.