Zhu Xuejian

Furongian (upper Cambrian) Guole Konservat‐Lagerstätte from South China

The Guole biota contains common shelly fossils and some exceptionally well-preserved softbodied fossils.Stratigraphically,it is located in the mudstones and siltstones of the Sandu Formation near Guole Town,Jingxi County,Guangxi,South China.It is the first Furongian(late Cambrian)Burgess Shale-type biota found in the world,thereby filling the gap between middle Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Burgess Shale-type Lagerstatten.Preliminary studies suggest that the Guole biota includes approximately seven metazoan groups as well as algae.These will provide important new evolutionary and ecological information.

Late Cambrian brachiopods from Jingxi, Guangxi Province, South China

The brachiopod fauna of the upper Cambrian (upper Furongian) Guole Formation, northwestern Jingxi County, southwestern Guangxi Province, southern China, comprises six genera and seven species, including one new genus, three new species and two indeterminate species (Obolidae gen. et sp. indet, Acrotretidae gen. et sp. indet., Billingsella guangxiensis, B. costata sp. nov., Guoleella lata gen. et sp. nov., Palaeostrophia jingxiensis, Plectotrophia imparicostata sp. nov.). This is the first systematic description of an upper Cambrian brachiopod fauna composed mainly of calcareous-shelled individuals from China. Brachiopod and trilobite faunal analyses suggest that this fauna has a prominent North American (Laurentian) affinity. It is notably different from the coeval, lingulate-dominated brachiopod fauna of South China, particularly of the Yangtze Platform, but shares some similarity with those of the North China Platform. Preliminary analysis reveals that this brachiopod fauna, named the Billingsella-Palaeostrophia Fauna, lived in a nearshore, shallow water benthic regime with a calcareous muddy substrate.

Evolution of carbon isotope composition in potential global stratotype section and point at Luoyixi, South China, for the base of the unnamed global seventh stage of Cambrian System

Abstract This work deals with the evolution of carbon isotope composition in the Luoyixi Section, a candidate of the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP), defining the base of the as-yet-undefined seventh stage of Cambrian System at the first appearance of the cosmopolitan agnostoid Lejopyge laevigata. This level is favored in a vote of International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy (ISCS) as the biohorizon for defining the base of a global stage. Two hundred and sixty-four samples for carbon and oxygen isotope analysis have been collected from the carbonate successions at an interval of 0.25 to 0.5 m in this section. Results of the carbon isotope data exhibit a remarkable disciplinarian trend. The pattern of the carbon isotope evolution is gently undulant with a relatively long period during the underlying Drumian Stage, and then the values of δ13C fluctuate sharply with a short period in provisional seventh stage. The onset of sharp fluctuation in the δ13C values begins at the proposed GSSP level, defining the base of the global seventh stage, where δ13C values change from a gentle trend to a sharp trend. Distinct covariant-relationships among δ13C, δ18O, and sea level fluctuations suggest that a warming change in paleoclimate took place during the early global seventh stage, which led to a positive shift in δ13C values.