THE INFRA-CAMBRIAN BIORADIATION EVENT: A REVIEW FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE YANGTZE PLATE IN SOUTH CHINA AND

• Main Authors: Coeval Strata, In Brazil
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Uruguay; Varanger
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.502.7326; http://www.sbpbrasil.org/revista/edicoes/7_2/erdt.pdf

ABSTRACT – Analytical work by a Sino-German team of paleobiologists, sedimentologists and geochemists during the past 3 years on numerous sections representing multifacies sparsely to moderately fossiliferous Terminal Proterozoic to lowermost Cambrian platformal to deeper water sediments on the South China Plate revealed that the entire ca. 57 Ma postglacial interval between the Varanger “Snowball Earth ” glaciation (600 Ma) and the first record of biomineralization during the earliest Cambrian (543 Ma) on the Yangtze Platform documents significant biological signals. The fossil (including trace fossil) record represents testing grounds for heterotrophic organisms, some having been mobile, others not, some having revealed only embryonic stages, altogether justifying an inclusion of these fossils as metazoans (bilateran and other body plans). In exceptional cases preservational windows resulting from different ultra finegrained lithologies permit insights into original body plans of soft-body forms. Moreover, bacterially controlled pre- to early diagenetic phosphatization, which is widespread during the Terminal Neoproterozoic, coated both minute skeletal and soft-tissue structures and delivered fossil “embryos ” and larval stages in great abundance and diversity from rocks dating back to ca. 580 Ma. The intra-South China Plate geological and paleobiological disposition and their correlations and implications for the interpretation of coeval occurrences, especially with the Corumbá (central-west of Brazil) and Arroyo del Soldado (Uruguay) depositional and fossil record, are outlined and discussed. Key words: Terminal Proterozoic-Early Cambrian bioradiation event, China, Brazil. RESUMO – Apresentam-se aqui dados de numerosas seções compreendendo várias fácies pouco a moderadamente fossilíferas, ocorrentes em depósitos marinhos plataformais até de águas profundas na plataforma continental do