Furongian (upper Cambrian) Guole Konservat-Lagerstatte from South China
Résumé
The Guole biota contains common shelly fossils and some exceptionally well-preserved soft bodied fossils. Stratigraphically, it is located in the mudstones and siltstones of the Sandu Formation near Guole Town, Jingxi County, Guangxi, South China. It is the first Furongian (late Cambrian) Burgess Shale-type biota found in the world, thereby filling the gap between middle Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Burgess Shale-type Lagerstatten. Preliminary studies suggest that the Guole biota includes approximately seven metazoan groups as well as algae. These will provide important new evolutionary and ecological information.