Possible Palaeoproterozoic multicellular fossils from Gabon
The Francevillian biota (Also referred to as Gabon macrofossils, Gabonionta or Francevillian group fossils) are a collection of 2.1-billion-year-old Palaeoproterozoic macroscopic structures, controversially suggested to be fossils, known from the Francevillian B Formation in Gabon, a black shale province notable for its lack of any noticeable metamorphism.[1] The structures have been postulated by some authors to be evidence of the earliest form of multicellular life, and of eukaryotes.[1][2] They were discovered by an international team led by Moroccan-French geologist Abderrazak El Albani, of the University of Poitiers, France. While they have yet to be assigned to a formal taxonomic position, they have been informally and collectively referred to as the "Gabonionta", including by the Natural History Museum Vienna in 2014.[3] The status of the structures as fossils has been questioned, and they remain a subject of debate.[4][5]