The carbon- and oxygen-isotope record of the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary interval in China and Iran and their correlation

Abstract

AbstractThe fossiliferous section at Meishucun of Yunnan, China, is a candidate stratotype section for the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary. Early diagenetic dolomites and phosphorites have been sampled across the boundary interval here, and in the correlated section at Maidiping in Sichuanand Valiabad in Iran, for comparison of their carbon and oxygen isotopes. This is the first such study that is calibrated by biostratigraphy in the interval from the earliest (pre-Tommotian) skeletal fossils to trilobites. Although negative oxygen isotopes indicate a diagenetic signal in the Zhongyicun Member and basal Badaowan Member phosphorites, two carbon-isotope cycles are clearly present and can be correlated in dolomitic rocks between the two sections. The first appearance datum (FAD) of the earliest skeletal assemblage (zone I, Marker A), FAD of diverse micromolluscs (zone II, Marker B) and FAD of Chinese trilobites (zones IV, V) and Marker C appear at similar points on the carbon-isotope curve in the two Chinese sections. Integrated carbon-isotope and early skeletal fossil biostratigraphy is shown to have the potential to correlate further afield, with sections in Iran, as well as with India, Siberia, Morocco and Australia. We suggest that a distinctive positive excursion provides a global marker for the interval between Marker B and C in China and just below the Tommotian Stage of Siberia.