The Doushantuo Formation (Chinese: 陡山沱; pinyin: dǒu shān tuó) is a Lagerstätte in Guizhou Province, China that is notable for being one of the oldest fossil beds to contain highly preserved fossils. The formation is of particular interest because it appears to cover the boundary between the problematic organisms of the Ediacaran geological period and the more familiar fauna of the Cambrian explosion of lifeforms whose descendents are recognizable. Taken as a whole, the Doushantuo Formation ranges from about 635 Ma (million years) ago at its base to about 551 Ma at its top, predating by perhaps five Ma the earliest of the 'classical' Ediacaran faunas from Mistaken Point on the Avalon peninsula of Newfoundland, and recording conditions a good forty to fifty million years before the Cambrian explosion.
Read more about Doushantuo Formation: Sedimentology, Fossils, Palaeogeography, Geochemistry
Famous quotes containing the word formation:
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)