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Burrowing below the basal Cambrian GSSP, Fortune Head, Newfoundland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2001

JAMES G. GEHLING
Affiliation:
South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia
SÖREN JENSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
MARY L. DROSER
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA
PAUL M. MYROW
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, The Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, USA
GUY M. NARBONNE
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada

Abstract

The range of Treptichnus pedum, the index trace fossil for the Treptichnus pedum Zone, extends some 4 m below the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point for the base of the Cambrian Period at Fortune Head on the Burin Peninsula in southeastern Newfoundland. The identification of zigzag traces of Treptichnus isp., even further below the GSSP than T. pedum in the Fortune Head section, and in other terminal Proterozoic successions around the globe, supports the concept of a gradational onset of three-dimensional burrowing across the Proterozoic–Cambrian boundary. Although T. pedum remains a reasonable indicator for the base of the Cambrian Period, greater precision in the stratotype section can be achieved by a detailed re-evaluation of the stratigraphic ranges and the morphological variation of ichnotaxa included in the T. pedum Zone.

Type
RAPID COMMUNICATION
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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