| Summary: | Planktonic, acid-resistent microfossils (acritarchs) occur in the Kongsfjord, Båsnæring and Båtsfjord Formations of the Barents Sea Group and in the Styret Formation of the Løkvikfjell Group. Two new taxa are described and additional data are presented on the previously known species. The state of preservation of the acritarchs is highly variable and may be related to a combination of depositional environment, diagenetic and thermal alteration phenomena and degree of structural deformation. The acritarch assemblages recovered from the Båsnæring and Båtsfjord formations are in agreement with the previously inferred Late Riphean to Early Vendian (?=Kudashian) age for the bulk of the Barents Sea Group. The Riphean-Vendian boundary most probably occurs within the lower Båtsfjord Formation. The Barents Sea Group is time-equivalent to the Vadsø and Tanafjord Groups of the Tanafjord-Varangerfjord Region of East Finnmark. There is also a fairly good time correlation between the bulk of the Barents Sea Group, the pre-Moelv Tillite part of the Hedmark Group and the Vising\u00CE Beds in Southern Scandinavia. Late Precambrian sequences of arctic U.S.S.R., Svaldbard and East Greenland appear to be time-equivalent with the Kongsfjord-Båsnæring-basal Båtsfjord part of the Barents Sea Group. 35058
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