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Lowermost Cambrian acritarchs from the Yanjiahe Formation, South China: implication for defining the base of the Cambrian in the Yangtze Platform

Part of: From Snowball Earth to the Cambrian Explosion: Evidence from China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2017

SOO YEUN AHN  and
MAOYAN ZHU
SOO YEUN AHN*
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 Beijing East Road, Nanjing 210008, China
MAOYAN ZHU
Affiliation:
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 Beijing East Road, Nanjing 210008, China College of Earth Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Shijinshang District, Beijing 100049, China
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Asteridium–Heliosphaeridium–Comasphaeridium (AHC) acritarch assemblage is composed of common organic-walled microfossils in the basal Cambrian chert–phosphorite units in South China, indicating that the AHC assemblage can be a useful biostratigraphic tool for the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary successions in the Yangtze Platform. To test the validity of the AHC acritarch assemblage as a biostratigraphic tool, the stratigraphic range of the AHC acritarch assemblage was confirmed, and its spatial and temporal relationships to other bio- and chemostratigraphic tools were analysed in the Yanjiahe Formation, Yangtze Gorges area, South China. The result shows that the AHC assemblage temporally correlates to the Anabarites trisulcatus–Protohertzina anabarica Assemblage Zone, and spatially correlates to the large negative carbon isotope anomaly of the lowermost Cambrian (BACE) in the Yanjiahe Formation. This implies that the radiation of phytoplankton occurred slightly before the radiation of the small shelly fossils, and the AHC acritarch assemblage can be another important chronological reference to the lowermost Cambrian successions in South China, and potentially to global correlations.

Keywords

AHC acritarchsbiostratigraphyCambrianSouth China
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 154 , Issue 6: THEMATIC ISSUE: From Snowball Earth to the Cambrian Explosion: Evidence from China , November 2017 , pp. 1217 - 1231
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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