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A new SIMS zircon U–Pb date from the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation: age constraint on the Weng'an biota

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

CHUANMING ZHOU ,
XIAN-HUA LI ,
SHUHAI XIAO ,
ZHONGWU LAN ,
QING OUYANG ,
CHENGGUO GUAN  and
ZHE CHEN
CHUANMING ZHOU*
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
XIAN-HUA LI
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
SHUHAI XIAO
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
ZHONGWU LAN
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
QING OUYANG
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
CHENGGUO GUAN
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
ZHE CHEN
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
*
†Author for correspondence: cmzhou@nigpas.ac.cn
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Abstract

As a well-known phosphatized Lagerstätte, the Ediacaran Weng'an biota in central Guizhou Province of South China contains diverse acanthomorphic acritarchs, algal thalli, tubular microfossils as well as various spheroidal fossils. These fossils provide crucial palaeontological evidence for the radiation of multicellular eukaryotes after the termination of the Neoproterozoic global glaciation. While the Weng'an biota is generally considered as early Ediacaran in age on the basis of phosphorite Pb–Pb isochron ages ranging from 572 Ma to 599 Ma, the reliability and accuracy of these age data have been questioned and some geologists have proposed that the Weng'an biota may be younger than 580 Ma instead. Here we report a SIMS zircon U–Pb age of 609 ± 5 Ma for a tuffaceous bed immediately above the upper phosphorite unit in the Doushantuo Formation at Zhangcunping, Yichang, South China. Litho-, bio- and chemostratigraphic correlations suggest that the upper phosphorite unit at Zhangcunping can be well correlated with the upper phosphorite unit at Weng'an, which is the main horizon of the Weng'an biota. We therefore conclude that the Weng'an biota could be as old as 609 ± 5 Ma.

Keywords

phosphatized Lagerstättelithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic correlationtuffaceous bedZhangcunpingSouth 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. 1193 - 1201
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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