Lower Cambrian small shelly faunas from Zhejiang (China) and their biostratigraphical implications

Abstract Despite a long history of research on the Early Cambrian in China most available data on small skeletal fossils concern fossil associations of the shallow carbonate platform. Information on skeletal fossils from marginal shelf environments of the Yangtze Platform is scanty, which may reflect the rarity of fossils in deeper sedimentary environments but is also due to limitation of carbonate distribution and outcrops, difficulties in fossil extraction, and a general research focus on the Precambrian—Cambrian boundary beds on the carbonate platform. Here we present a documentation of Meishucunian to Qiongzhusian smallskeletal fossils from the lower Hetang Formation and the chert unit at its base from the Jiangshan region, Zhejiang Province, representing a relatively deep shelf environment compared to the inner shelfregion. The earliest association (Meishucunian) from the chert unit underlying the Hetang Formation is mainly characterized by the occurrence of Protohertzina anabarica, P. unguliformis, ...