Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U–Th–Pb age determinations on detrital and
inherited zircon from the E ´ vora Massif (SW Iberian Massif, Portugal) provide direct evidence for
the provenance of the Ossa–Morena Ediacaran basins (Se´rie Negra) and a palaeogeographical link
with the West African craton. Three samples of the Se´rie Negra paragneisses contain large components
of Cryogenian and Ediacaran (c. 700–540 Ma) detrital zircon, but have a marked lack of
zircon of Mesoproterozoic (c. 1.8–0.9 Ga) age. Older inherited zircons are of Palaeoproterozoic
(c. 2.4–1.8 Ga) and Archaean (c. 3.5–2.5 Ga) age. The same age pattern is also found in the
Arraiolos biotite granite, which was formed by partial melting of the Se´rie Negra and overlying
Cambrian rocks. These results are consistent with substantial denudation of a continental region
that supplied sediments to the Ediacaran Ossa–Morena basins during the final stages of the
Cadomian–Avalonian orogeny (peri-Gondwanan margin with principal zircon-forming events
at c. 575 Ma and c. 615 Ma). Combined with the detrital zircon ages reported for rocks of the
same age from Portugal, Spain, Germany and Algeria, our data suggest that the sediment
supply to the Ediacaran–Early Palaeozoic siliciclastic sequences preserved in all these peri-
Gondwanan regions was similar. The lack of Grenvillian-aged (c. 1.1–0.9 Ga) zircon in the
Ossa–Morena and Saxo-Thuringia Ediacaran sediments suggests that the sediment in these
peri-Gondwanan basins was derived from the West African craton
