Shales and siltstones from the Early Neoproterozoic Kildinskaya, Volokovaya and Einovskaya Groups and the Skarbeevskaya Fonnation (Kildin Island, Sredni and Rybachi Peninsulas) and the Chapoma Fonnation (Tiersky Coast) on the Kola Peninsula, Northwest Russia yielded assemblages of moderately well-preserved organic-walled acid-resistant microfossils (acritarchs, and probable cyanobacterial sheaths). The assemblages consist of cosmopolitan taxa recovered from various Early Neoproterozoic (Late and Terminal Riphean) settings in Scandinavia, Russia, Yakutia, North America and elsewhere. Among the recovered taxa, Lopho-sphaeridium laufeldii Vida) 1976 comb. nov., Satka colonialica Jankauskas, Simia annulare (Timofeev) Mikhailovna, Tasmanites rifejicus Jankauskas, Valeria lophostriata Jankauskas and Vandalosphaeridium ?varangeri Vidal are regarded as the biostratigraphi- cally most significant. One taxon, Trachysphaeridium laufeldi Vida) is transferred to Lophosphaeridium laufeldii (Vidal) Samuelsson comb. nov. The units examined herein are all considered to be Late Riphean in age and are correlated with other units of similar age in northern and southem Scandinavia, Svalbard, East Greenland and the southern Urals.

Joakim Samuelsson, Uppsala University, Institute of Earth Sciences, Micropalaeontology, Norbyvägen 22, S-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden.