First multi-proxy chronostratigraphy of the lower Cambrian Byrd Group, Transantarctic Mountains and correlation within East GondwanaShow others and affiliations
2024 (English)In: Gondwana Research, ISSN 1342-937X, E-ISSN 1878-0571, Vol. 136, p. 126-141Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Antarctica and Australia were sutured together at the equator during the major pulse of animal biodiversification associated with the Cambrian radiation. However, the lack of detailed systematic chemostratigraphic and biostratigraphic sampling of lower Cambrian sedimentary successions from Antarctica has significantly impeded precise age determination and correlation with Cambrian strata on other palaeocontinents. This study is the first to present integrated, simultaneously sampled biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic (d13C isotopes) data from the same measured stratigraphic sections through the lower Cambrian Byrd Group in the Transantarctic Mountains. Shelly fossil assemblages (brachiopods, tommotiids, molluscs, bradoriids, trilobites) from the Holyoake Range and Churchill Mountains facilitate direct correlation with the Dailyatia odyssei Zone of South Australia (Cambrian Stages 3–4), and trilobites provide strong correlation between the Starshot Formation and the Cymbric Vale Formation in western New South Wales. A new ID-TIMS radiometric date of 514.96 ± 0.16 Ma from a tuff in the lower Cymbric Vale Formation is similar to dates from tuff beds in the Third Plain Creek Member of the Mernmerna Formation in the Flinders Ranges, providing an important absolute-age tie point between these lower Cambrian successions. Chemostratigraphic data from the upper Shackleton Limestone in the Holyoake Range capture a negative d13C excursion that can be correlated to negative values within the multipeaked MICE (cycles V–VIII in Siberia). Integrated faunal and chemostratigraphic data indicate a Cambrian Stages 3–4 age, giving robust chronostratigraphic context for the upper Shackleton Limestone–Holyoake Formation–Starshot Formation succession for the first time, permitting reconstruction of the depositional history of the lower Cambrian of Antarctica and global correlation of Byrd Group strata
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. Vol. 136, p. 126-141
Keywords [en]
Cambrian, chronostratigraphy, Small shelly fossils, correlation, biostratigraphy, isotope
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Research subject
The changing Earth
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-5786DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2024.07.022OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-5786DiVA, id: diva2:1919882
Funder
Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, VR 2010-6176Australian Research Council, DE220101558Swedish Research Council, 2009-4395Swedish Research Council, 2018-03390Swedish Research Council, 2021-04295
Note
Fieldwork in Antarctica was supported by operational support for polar research (RFI Polar VR 2010-6176 to LEH and GAB) and the Swedish Polar Secretariat in collaboration with the United States Antarctic Program and US National Science Foundation. MJB is supported by research funds from the University of New England, Armidale and the Australian Research Council (DE220101558). TMC was supported by a CTiMRTP scholarship at MQU and a Betty Mayne grant from the Linnean Society of NSW. LEH and TPT was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (VR 2009-4395, 2012-1658, 2018-03390, 2021-04295). TPT was also supported by NSFC grant 42072003. GAB was supported in Antarctica by a Trans-Antarctic Association Grant. TYSP was supported by Korea Polar Research Institute grant (KOPRI project No. PE23050).
2024-12-112024-12-102025-09-12Bibliographically approved