Recovery brachiopod associations from the lower Silurian of South China and their paleoecological implications

Date

2015-12-22

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing

Abstract

A recovery brachiopod fauna occurs in the lower Niuchang Formation (upper Rhuddanian-lower Aeronian, Llandovery) of the Xinglongchang section, Meitan County, northern Guizhou Province, South China. Nine collections were made at the section, all of which are dominated by brachiopods, and three associations are recognized here and their paleoecology is discussed. Paleoenvironmental analysis shows a shallowing upward trend for the lower Niuchang Formation although a global transgression was happening at that time. The balance between the global transgression and the regional Qianzhong Uplift guaranteed a stable environment for the formation of the Niuchang Formation and the recovery of brachiopods in South China after the end-Ordovician mass extinction. In addition to the traditional methods of PCA and CA, a relatively new technique to paleontology, “Network Analysis” (NA), is applied successfully in this study. It is suggested that Network Analysis could be used as one of the supporting methods in investigating brachiopod paleoecology.

Description

Keywords

Citation

ISSN

0008-4077

Creative Commons

Creative Commons URI

Collections

Items in TSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.