Stratigraphical and biological significance of negative carbon isotopic anomalies in the basal Cambrian series of Guizhou Province

Abstract

The early Early Cambrian strata within the bounds of Guizhou Province are almost predominated by black shale deposition. Recently, however, the authors have found a section consisting of a set of mudstones interbedded with limestones at the basement of the Cambrian at Yingping, Fuquan County, Guizhou Province, which provides favorable conditions for the study of marine geochemical characteristics of the early Early Cambrian. The characteristics of intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary at Yingping, Fuquan County, Guizhou Province, can be correlated with those of global carbon isotopic anomalies at the same time on a global scale, corresponding to the intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies near the Neoproterozoic/Cambrian boundaries at the bottom of the Xiaowaitoushan Member, Huize, Yunnan Province, at the top of the Tsagaan Oloom Formation of Mongolia and at the top of the Salarmy Gol Formation of Siberia, as well as those observed in southwestern United States, Iran, Amman, Poland, Newfoundland, the Great Britain, Canada, etc. Negative carbon isotopic anomalies can be used as the important basis for the division of the Precambrian/Cambrian boundaries. There have been found 8 m-thick black shales and cherts below the intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies in this profile. In the black shales there have been found large amounts of fossils such asBradorida, gernusArchotuba, indicating that during the period of sedimentation of black shales under anaerobic conditions there would be large quantities of organic species living in the sea. But in the section of grayish-green mudstones interbedded with limestones with intense negative carbon isotopic anomalies almost no organic fossil has been found. This may imply that the anaerobic event seems to have little bearing on the mass extinction near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary, whereas the intense negative carbon isotopic anomaly event appears to be more closely related to the mass extinction occurring near the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary.