Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:40:16.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stratigraphic classification and nomenclature of the Precambrian–Cambrian transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

M. F. Glaessner
M. F. Glaessner
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Relevant points of general principle and special application to the problem under discussion are quoted selectively from the recently published time scale by Harland et al. (1982) and critically considered. Most of the principles and the resulting names for divisions of the Precambrian–Cambrian transition used in it are accepted. The unique significance of the transition from dominantly chronometric to dominantly chronostratic boundaries based on the ‘biostratigraphic sequence’ is an additional justification for the higher ranks previously given to the Vendian (Era) and its constituent divisions: Varangian (or Varangerian) and Ediacaran (or Ediacarian) Periods. The historic transition begins with the latest of the Proterozoic glaciations (the earlier ones started about 950 m.y. ago) and ends with the exponential diversification of the Metazoa. The causal linkage of the two events is hypothetical. Their stratigraphic sequence is demonstrable on the East European platform where the type section of the Vendian is located, and on the Yangtse platform. Normative, operationally designated boundaries are required for the stratigraphic divisions. The history of life in which there are no sharp initial and terminal boundaries shows clearly a rapid transition from widespread but generally rare occurrences of Vendian, particularly Ediacaran, fossils to ubiquitous, generally ‘shelly’ Palaeozoic (initially Cambrian) faunas of unquestioned biostratigraphic importance. This biohistoric transition is the beginning of the Phanerozoic division of a unique historic process. For the Eon of the stratigraphic scale comprising Palaeozoic to Cainozoic Eras the new term Holozoic is therefore proposed.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 121 , Issue 3 , May 1984 , pp. 139 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chadwick, G. H. 1930. Subdivision of geologic time. Geological Society of America Bulletin 41, 47–8.Google Scholar
Chumakov, N. M. & Semikhatov, M. A. 1981. Riphean and Vendian of the USSR. Precambrian Research 15, 229–53.Google Scholar
Cloud, P. 1968. Pre-metazoan evolution and the origins of the Metazoa. In Evolution and Environment (ed. Drake, T.), pp. 1–72. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Cloud, P. 1976 a. Beginnings of biospheric evolution and their biogeochemical consequences. Paleobiology 2, 351–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloud, P. 1976 b. Major features of crustal evolution. Transactions and Proceedings of the Geological Society of South Africa, Annex to 79, 32 pp.Google Scholar
Cloud, P. & Glaessner, M. F. 1982. The Ediacarian Period and System: Metazoa inherit the Earth. Science 217, 783–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glaessner, M. F. 1983. The emergence of Metazoa in the early history of life. Precambrian Research 20, 427–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaessner, M. F. 1984. The Dawn of Animal Life. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gorin, G. E., Racz, L. G. & Walter, M. R. 1982. Late Precambrian–Cambrian sediments of the Huqf Group, Sultanate of Oman. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 66, 2609–27.Google Scholar
Harland, W. B., Cox, A. V., Llewellyn, P. G., Pickton, C. A. G., Smith, A. G. & Walters, R. 1982. A Geologic Time Scale. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harland, W. B. & Herod, K. N. 1975. Glaciations through time. Geological Journal Special Issue 6, 189–216.Google Scholar
Sokolov, B. S. 1976 a. Metazoa dokembriya i Vendo–Kembriyskiy rubezh (Precambrian Metazoa and the Vendian–Cambrian boundary). Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 1, 3–18 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Sokolov, B. S. 1976 b. Organicheskiy mir zemli na puti k fanerozoyskoy differentsiatsii (The organic world of the Earth on the Way to Phanerozoic differentiation). Vestnik Akademii Nauk S.S.S.R. 1, 126–43 (in Russian).Google Scholar