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Proposed GSSP for the base of Cambrian Stage 9, coinciding with the first appearance of Agnostotes orientalis, at Duibian, Zhejiang, China

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Abstract

Exposed in natural outcrops near the Duibian Village, Jiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, China, the Duibian B section is proposed as the boundary stratotype for the base of an unnamed stage termed provisionally Cambrian Stage 9. The proposed position of the GSSP is 108.12 m above the base of the Huayansi Formation, at a horizon coinciding with the first appearance of the cosmopolitan agnostoid trilobite Agnostotes orientalis. This horizon coincides also with the first appearance of the cosmopolitan polymerid trilobite Irvingella angustilimbata. The section fulfills all the requirements for a GSSP, and the horizon can be constrained not only by the primary stratigraphic marker (A. orientalis) but also with secondary biostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic, and sequence-stratigraphic correlation tools. The first appearance of A. orientalis is one of the most readily recognizable levels in Cambrian, and can be correlated with precision to all paleocontinents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    ShanChi Peng, JingXun Zuo, HuanLing Lin, XueJian Zhu, XianFeng Yang & YuPing Qi

  2. State Key Laboratory of Paleobiology and Stratigraphy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    ShanChi Peng

  3. School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Loren E. Babcock

  4. Henan Institute of Geological Survey, Zhengzhou, 450007, China

    JingXun Zuo

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    XueJian Zhu

  6. Department of Earth Sciences of Pisa University, Pisa, 56126, Italy

    Gabriella Bagnoli

  7. Geological Surveying Institution of Zhejiang Province, Xiaoshan, 311203, China

    LongWu Wang

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Supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX2-YW-122), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant Nos. 2006FY120300, 2006CB806400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40072003, 40023002, 40332018, 40672023, 40602002), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No. EAR-0106883)

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Peng, S., Babcock, L.E., Zuo, J. et al. Proposed GSSP for the base of Cambrian Stage 9, coinciding with the first appearance of Agnostotes orientalis, at Duibian, Zhejiang, China. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 52, 434–451 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-009-0045-8

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