The emergence and radiation of metazoan body plans around the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, some 500-600 million years ago, seems to be concordant with the appearance and diversification of preservable hard parts. Several Precambrian soft-bodied, multicellular organisms most likely represent stem-group bilaterians, but their fossil record is rather sparse.  In contrast, the Cambrian fossil record is comparably rich – comprising hard part, trace fossil and delicate soft tissue preservation – and most animal phyla that we know of today had evolved by the end of the Cambrian. Consequently, this time represents an important period in the early evolution of metazoan life forms. Most skeletal remnants of invertebrate organisms from this period are preserved in incomplete, disarticulated sclerite assemblages, and the true architecture of the original skeletal structure, the scleritome, may therefore be hard to discern. Many scleritomous taxa have been suggested to be members of the lophotrochozoan clade, while their exact position within this group remains unclear. Such taxa are often referred to as Problematica. This thesis deals with some problematic scleritomous early Cambrian lophotrochozoans, and as such also addresses the dilemmas of scleritome reconstructions. In the first part, completely disarticulated calcareous sclerites from the lower Cambrian of North Greenland are described as Trachyplax arctica. Hypothetical scleritome reconstruction alternatives and comparisons to other scleritome-bearing taxa are discussed, but the lack of articulated material obscures any satisfactory conclusions regarding phylogenetic affinities and the original morphology of the organism. The other part of the thesis focuses on some minute, organophosphatic scleritomous metazoans, tommotiids, found in lower Cambrian limestone successions in South Australia – Paterimitra pyramidalis and Kulparina rostrata – their scleritome architecture and their phylogenetic relationship with paterinid brachiopods. The oldest brachiopod from South Australia, Askepasma saproconcha, and the slightly younger Askepasma toddense are also described and discussed. Based on articulated specimens, recently described partial scleritomes of the tommotiid Eccentrotheca helenia and similarities in shell ultrastructure with both Eccentrotheca and Askepasma, Paterimitra is interpreted as a stem-group brachiopod and reconstructed as a bilaterally symmetrical, sessile, filter feeder with a tubular/conical scleritome. The morphological similarities with Paterimitra point in the same direction for the slightly older Kulparina.

<p>Organic-walled microfossils are abundant and taxonomically diverse in Cambrian-Ordovician strata; some are important for biostratigraphy and for the correlation of geological successions. New assemblages of Cambrian-Ordovician acritarchs from Kolguev Island, Arctic Russia and Middle Cambrian ichnofossils of endoliths from Peary Land, North Greenland are studied. Twenty-seven acritarch species are described in detail and 10 taxa are left under open nomenclature. The diagnosis of one genus is restricted, and two other are emended. New combinations are proposed for three species and one new species is recognised. The studied acritarch assemblages are taxonomically rich and age-diagnostic and used to recognise Upper Cambrian and Tremadoc strata on Kolguev Island. The sedimentologically continuous successions provide for the first time palaeontological evidence of Cambrian strata in the north-eastern sector of Europe. The exact level of the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary was distinguished together with stratigraphic intervals equivalent to the <i>Peltura</i> and <i>Acerocare</i> zones of the Upper Cambrian of Baltica. The newly established relative age of the lowermost sedimentary succession overlying the Timanian unconformity allows verification of the minimum age of the Timanian deformation and the time-span of the hiatus bound to this unconformity. Endoliths occur in the fossil record from the Early Archean and they played an important role in the formation of stromatolites and the process of bioerosion and biodegradation. Endoliths that have actively bored into brachiopod shells or carbonate grains (euendoliths), and some that inhabited the cavities inside brachiopod shells (cryptoendoliths) are described. Borings within the carbonate grains extended with a dentritic pattern, whereas those within the brachiopod shells were formed by a multifilamentous euendolith which produced characteristic longitudinally ridged galleries. The cryptoendolithic morphologies include indeterminate coccoid masses and at least two filamentous forms. However, considerable variation in the dimensions of the currently phosphatised diagenetic crusts of the cryptoendoliths hinders discrimination.</p>

Organic-walled microfossils are abundant and taxonomically diverse in Cambrian-Ordovician strata; some are important for biostratigraphy and for the correlation of geological successions. New assemblages of Cambrian-Ordovician acritarchs from Kolguev Island, Arctic Russia and Middle Cambrian ichnofossils of endoliths from Peary Land, North Greenland are studied. Twenty-seven acritarch species are described in detail and 10 taxa are left under open nomenclature. The diagnosis of one genus is restricted, and two other are emended. New combinations are proposed for three species and one new species is recognised. The studied acritarch assemblages are taxonomically rich and age-diagnostic and used to recognise Upper Cambrian and Tremadoc strata on Kolguev Island. The sedimentologically continuous successions provide for the first time palaeontological evidence of Cambrian strata in the north-eastern sector of Europe. The exact level of the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary was distinguished together with stratigraphic intervals equivalent to the Peltura and Acerocare zones of the Upper Cambrian of Baltica. The newly established relative age of the lowermost sedimentary succession overlying the Timanian unconformity allows verification of the minimum age of the Timanian deformation and the time-span of the hiatus bound to this unconformity. Endoliths occur in the fossil record from the Early Archean and they played an important role in the formation of stromatolites and the process of bioerosion and biodegradation. Endoliths that have actively bored into brachiopod shells or carbonate grains (euendoliths), and some that inhabited the cavities inside brachiopod shells (cryptoendoliths) are described. Borings within the carbonate grains extended with a dentritic pattern, whereas those within the brachiopod shells were formed by a multifilamentous euendolith which produced characteristic longitudinally ridged galleries. The cryptoendolithic morphologies include indeterminate coccoid masses and at least two filamentous forms. However, considerable variation in the dimensions of the currently phosphatised diagenetic crusts of the cryptoendoliths hinders discrimination.