Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2011 number 10

Chronostratigraphic space is defined as information about the geologic history and paleobiosphere that elucidates the Earth's evolution in the interaction of different layers of the geosphere. Stratigraphic subdivisions act as an information-carrying medium. Elementary units in the Phanerozoic chronostratigraphic space are biostratigraphic zones, whereas in the Proterozoic space, sequenthemes. The Vendian sequentheme has a unique paleontological characterstic, which continuously expands and is refined. Its lower boundary determines the top of cryogenic suberatheme and is marked by deposition of the last diamictite (Varangerian, Marinoan) and the largest postglacial transgression. In the chronostratigraphic space, the Vendian is surely Neoproterozoic but constitutes a single acrochrone of the biosphere evolution with the Phanerozoic. The Vendian stage divides and connects two different-sized intervals in the evolution of Geomerida: a long interval of time (from the origin of life to the beginning of the Vendian) marked by a predominance of prokaryotic ecosystems and a relatively short interval with the incredible biodiversity of modern-type ecosystems dominated by eukaryotes.