NEW MATERIAL OF ANIMAL FOSSILS FROM THE UPPER SINIAN OF THE YANGTZE REGION, SOUTHERN CHINA

The animal and trace fossils from the Upper Sinian of the Yangtze region, referred to not a few of categories , have been recorded in some treatises. This paper adds new material of skeletal and trace fossils from various sections and horizons of the Upper Sinian of the Yangtze region. These are (1) a phosphatic crossed spicule from the phosphorite of the uppermost part of the Doushantuo Formation at Wangjiayuan, Shangrao, Jiangxi Province and a siliceous single axial spicule from the stripped chert intercalated in the Upper Member dolostones of the Dengying Formation at Wangjiawan, Jinning, Yunnan Province, which might be respectively referred to Calcarea and Demospongiae; (2) a problematic shelly fossil from the phosphoric dolostone of the Upper Member of the Doushantuo Formation in Weng'an, Guizhou Province; (3) trace fossils, just like Funisichnus grammatus Zhang et Dong from the Shibantan Member of the Dengying Formation, from the Second Member of the Doushantuo Formation at Jinguadun, Yichang, Hubei Province; (4) the bioturbatic structures of the phosphate hardgrounds from the Upper Member of the Doushantuo Formation of Weng'an and the base of the Upper Member of the Dengying Formation in Nanzhang, Hubei Province. In addition, a vase shaped fossil in the thin section, sampled from the lowermost part of the Taozichong Formation at Taozichong, Qingzhen, Guizhou Province, is first recorded in this paper. The horizon containing the vase shaped fossil was previously correlated with the uppermost horizon of the Sinian, actually it belongs to the lowermost Cambrian which overlies unconformably the Dengying Formation dolostones. The material reported here suggests that animals of different categories relatively throve in Late Sinian prior to the organism explosion in early Early Cambrian.