Stratigraphic Distribution of Fossil Organisms in the Upper Vendian Deposits of the Central and Southwestern Regions of the East European Platform

New and previously obtained paleontological data from the Vendian reference sections of the central and southwestern areas of the East European Platform are analyzed. Various associations of organic-walled microfossils and macroscopic fossil organisms of Redkino and Kotlin age are widespread in the Upper Vendian terrigenous deposits of northwestern Russia, northern Belarus, and western Ukraine. It is assumed that the Redkino and Kotlin intervals correspond to two major stages of transformation in the communities of fossil organisms. Finds of new fossils, including those representing animals, in the Upper Vendian deposits of the Kotlin Regional Stage suggest a more complex composition of the Kotlin biota than previously thought.