Nama Group

The Nama Group is a roughly 125,000 square kilometer Ediacaran group of stratigraphic sequences in central and southern Namibia, exposed in the Nama foreland basin across the Omaheke, Hardap and Karas regions, with notable outcrops at Fish River Canyon and the Huns Mountains. It dates to the terminal Precambrian Ediacaran period, roughly 570 to 543 million years ago, with radiometric ages from ash beds ranging from about 547.3 to 538.2 million years, and consists mainly of sandstone with siltstone, mudstone and limestone deposited in a storm-dominated ramp setting, including thrombolite-stromatolite reefs. It is noted for exceptional Nama-type preservation, in which organisms were cast in three dimensions in sandstone by single storm or mudflow events, and it hosts a diverse Ediacaran fauna including Cloudina, Namacalathus, Pteridinium, Rangea and Swartpuntia.