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【Main Contents】
Terminal Proterozoic rocks outcrop on the Yangtze Platform in South China,
from Yunnan Province in the west to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in
the east, and from the Yangtze Gorges area to Guizhou province and Guangxi
Zhuang Automomous Region. These proterozoic successions are little metamorphosed
and contain abundant and diverse beautifully preserved fossils. Building
upon the research of dozens of palaeontologists in the last few decades,
we begin to understand the Terminal Proterozoic biodiversity through the
taphonomic windows preserved in Doushantuo rocks at Weng'an, Miaohe, and
Lantian. The Weng'an Biota in Guizhou Province is best known for its phosphatized
algae and animals, exquisitely preserved at cellular level and in three
dimensions. The Miaohe Biota, rivaling the Burgess Shale in preservational
style and quality, contains beautifully preserved carbonaceous compressions
on the banks of the equally beautiful yangtze Gorges. The Lantian Flora,
entombed in terminal Proterozoic rocks near Lantian,-a southern Anhui
town rich in culture and history, also features diverse carbonaceous compressions.
These three biotas are of similar geological age, follwing the proterozoic
glaciation recorded in the Nantuo Tillite about 600 million years ago
but preceding the Cambrian Explosion 544 million years ago. In combination,
these three fossil assemblages allow a clearer and more complete understanding
of the proterozoic biosphere just before the Ediacaran and Cambrian diversification
animas.
Contents
1. Preface
2. Origin of Life and Early Life on Earth
(1) Origin of Life
(2) Early Life on Earth
3. Palaeobiology of the Doushantuo Formation
(1) Research History
(2) Geological Settings
(3) Systematic Palaeontology
(4) Phosphatized Algal Fossils from the Doushantuo formation
(5) Metazoan Fossils from the Doushantuo Formation
4. Diversification of the Doushantuo Multicellular Life and its Environmental
Background
5. References
6. Index
7. Index of Figures
8. Postscipt
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