The Cambrian Burgess Shale-type (BST) fossil lagerst？tten have a global distribution from Laurasia to Gondwana. Exceptionally well-preserved soft-bodied fossils from these lagerst？tten document unique information for elucidating the origin and early evolution of metazoans during the ‘‘Cambrian explosion’’. Over the past three decades, several famous BST fossil lagerst？tten have been uncovered from the Cambrian of South China, and attracted worldwide attention and public interests.
In recent years, a research groupheaded by Prof. ZHU Maoyan from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences have unremittingly discovered exciting fossils in the Cambrian strata in southeastern Yunnan. Recently, Dr. ZHAO Fangchen and his colleagues from the research group report a new Chengjiang-type fossil assemblage from the lower part of the Hongjingshao Formation at Xiazhuang village of Chenggong, Kunming, Yunnan. The fossil assemblage, named as Xiazhuang fossil assemblage, yields abundant soft-bodied fossils except for common trilobites, including arthropods, brachiopods, priapulids, lobopods and some problematic taxa, with arthropods being the most dominant group. Preservation and composition of the fossil assemblage are very similar to the typical Chengjiang biota, which is preserved in the middle Yu’anshan Formation in the large area of eastern Yunnan. The associated trilobites demonstrate that the soft-bodied fossil assemblage belongs to the late Qiongzhusian in age (Stage 3, Cambrian), suggesting that the Hongjingshao Formation is probably a diachronous lithostratigraphic unit ranging from the upper Qiongzhusian to the lower Canglangpuan stages in eastern Yunnan. The fossil assemblage from the Xiazhuang area fills up the missing link between the typical older Chengjiang biota and the younger Malong and Guanshan biotas, making eastern Yunnan a unique area in the world to reveal the early evolutionary history of animals and palaeocommunity dynamics during the ‘‘Cambrian explosion’’.
This research was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Basic Research Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Related information of this paper: ZENG Han, ZHAO Fangchen*, YIN Zongjun, LI Guoxiang, ZHU Maoyan. 2014. A Chengjiang-type fossil assemblage from the Hongjingshao Formation (Cambrian Stage 3) at Chenggong, Kunming, Yunnan. Chinese Science Bulletin, DOI:10.1007/s11434-014-0419-y.
The trilobites from the lower Hongjingshao Formation, indicate that the new soft-bodied fossil assemblage belongs to the late Qiongzhusian age.
Representative soft-bodied fossils from Hongjingshao Formation at Xiazhuang, Chenggong area
Stratigraphic overview and sample site.
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