A new early Cambrian Konservat-Lagerstätte expands the occurrence of Burgess Shale-type deposits on the Yangtze Platform
Kun‐sheng Du, Javier Ortega‐Hernández, Jie Yang, X. C. Yang, Qing-hao Guo, Wei Li, Ji-feng He, Ke-ren Li, Jialin Du, Jin‐bo Hou, Xiguang Zhang
Abstract
We report the Fandian biota, a new Konservat-Lagerstätte from the Cambrian Stage 3 Yuxiansi and Jiulaodong Formations in Sichuan, South China, with close faunal links to the Chengjiang biota in Yunnan. The biodiversity of the Fandian biota includes total-group euarthropods (radiodonts, bivalved forms, acercostracans, trilobites, non-biomineralized trilobitomorphs), armoured lobopodians, palaeoscolecids, pedunculate brachiopods, hyoliths, chancelloriids, sponges, and filamentous algae. Benthic dwellers dominate the fossil community (e.g. trilobitomorphs, brachiopods, sponges), with rare instances of nektonic (radiodonts, bivalved euarthropods) and infaunal (palaeoscolecids) organisms. The Fandian biota contains soft-bodied taxa that were only known from Chengjiang and Xiaoshiba until now, namely Primicaris (acercostracan), Xandarella (non-trilobite trilobitomorph) and Mafangscolex (palaeoscolecid), expanding the distribution of these previously endemic taxa beyond Yunnan to the northern Yangtze Platform during the Cambrian Stage 3. Our findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of early Cambrian biodiversity that inhabited the Yangtze Platform over a substantially greater palaeobiogeographic distribution than previously considered.