First record of metazoan eggs and embryos from early Cambrian Chert Member of Deo ka Tibba Formation, Tal Group, Uttarakhand Lesser Himalaya

The phosphatized globular to sub-oval metazoan eggs with distinctively ornamented covering and phosphatized polar lobe forming embryos are recorded for the first time from the black phosphatic chert lenticles and bands of early Cambrian Chert Member of Deo ka Tibba Formation, Tal Group, Uttarakhand Lesser Himalaya. Similar metazoan eggs have been recorded earlier from early Cambrian rocks of Shaanxi Province, China, northwestern Canada, Australia, Mongolia, Siberia and Kazakhstan. These eggs are found in association with Small Shelly Fossils (SSF) and may belong to them. However, polar lobe forming embryos have been earlier recorded from Neoproterozoic rocks of southwestern China only. Similar embryos are common in modern molluscs and bilaterians.