Wend Complex

Wend Complex 

(from the name of the ancient Slavic tribe of Wends, or Veneti), a complex of mountain rocks directly preceding the Cambrian system (period). Many specialists have distinguished it by the term “Eocambrian.” B. S. Sokolov designated it in 1950. The Wend complex includes rare representatives of organisms without skeletal systems (Rongea, Vendia, medusoids), the acritarcha com- plex, and, in carbon rocks, traces of the life activities of blue-green water plants (stromatolites and microphytolites). On the Eastern European plateau, Wend complex deposits are represented by terrigenous series (those of Pachelma, Volynia, and Valdai); on the Siberian Platform, where the Wend complex is not infrequently referred to as the Iudoma complex, the deposits are represented by dolomite. In Aus- tralia, the Wend complex corresponds to Pound sands, rich in fauna of the Ediacara organisms without skeletal systems. According to the data of isotopic analysis, the Wend com- plex corresponds to the time interval of from 570 million to 680 million years ago.

B. M. KELLER