The mass extinction at the end of the Permian was the most profound in the history of life. Fundamental to understanding its cause is determining the tempo and duration of the extinction. Uranium/lead zircon data from Late Permian and Early Triassic rocks from south China place the Permian-Triassic boundary at 251.4 +/- 0.3 million years ago. Biostratigraphic controls from strata intercalated with ash beds below the boundary indicate that the Changhsingian pulse of the end-Permian extinction, corresponding to the disappearance of about 85 percent of marine species, lasted less than 1 million years. At Meishan, a negative excursion in delta13C at the boundary had a duration of 165,000 years or less, suggesting a catastrophic addition of light carbon.

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Volcanic zircons from three ashes give a U-Pb date of 511 ± 1 Ma on trilobite-bearing, upper Lower Cambrian (upper Branchian Series) strata of southern New Brunswick that correlate into the Siberian middle Botomian - Toyonian Stage interval. This very young age on the late, but not latest, Early Cambrian of Avalon is consistent both with a 519 ± 1 Ma age on the older Caerfai Bay Shales of south Wales that are tentatively correlated into strata with the oldest Avalonian trilobites (lower Branchian) and with a 517 ± 1.5 Ma age on the Antatlasia gutta-pluviae Zone (trilobites) of Morocco. Determination of a 522 ± 2 Ma zircon age on the Moroccan subtrilobitic Lower Cambrian Lie de vin Formation is consistent with an earlier reported 521 ± 7 Ma age from the Lie de vin but suggests that a 526 ± 4 Ma age on Australian trilobite-bearing Lower Cambrian rocks may be too old. A 33+ Ma duration of the Avalonian Early Cambrian and an 8+ Ma length of the Avalonian trilobite-bearing Lower Cambrian support proposals that most Cambrian time was Early Cambrian and the majority of the Early Cambrian was pretrilobitic.

A crystal-rich volcaniclastic sandstone in the lower Peltura scarabaeoides Zone at Ogof-ddû near Criccieth, North Wales, yields a U-Pb zircon age of 491 ± 1 Ma. This late Late Cambrian date indicates a remarkably young age for the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary whose age must be less than 491 Ma. Hence the revised duration of the post-Placentian (trilobite-bearing) Cambrian indicates that local trilobite zonations allow a biostratigraphic resolution comparable to that provided by Ordovician graptolites and Mesozoic ammonites. § Author for correspondence

The Chuar Group (~1600 m thick) preserves a record of extensional tectonism, ocean-chemistry fluctuations, and biological diversification during the late Neoproterozoic Era. An ash layer from the top of the section has a U-Pb zircon age of 742 ± 6 Ma. The Chuar Group was deposited at low latitudes during extension on the north-trending Butte fault system and is inferred to record rifting during the breakup of Rodinia. Shallow-marine deposition is documented by tide-and wave-generated sedimentary structures, facies associations, and fossils. C isotopes in organic carbon show large stratigraphic variations, apparently recording incipient stages of the marked C isotopic fluctuations that characterize later Neoproterozoic time. Upper Chuar rocks preserve a rich biota that includes not only cyanobacteria and algae, but also heterotrophic protists that document increased food web complexity in Neoproterozoic ecosystems. The Chuar Group thus provides a well-dated, high-resolution record of early events in the sequence of linked tectonic, biogeochemical, environmental, and biological changes that collectively ushered in the Phanerozoic Eon.

Two thin volcaniclastic sandstone beds in the Bryn-llin-fawr road section in North Wales overlie an apparent sequence boundary within the uppermost Cambrian Acerocare Zone and are overlain by lowest Ordovician (lower Tremadoc) Rhabdinopora faunas. U-Pb geochronology of zircons from these sandstones yields a maximum Cambrian-Ordovician boundary age of 489±0.6 Ma. This age indicates both that the Tremadoc Series (lowest Ordovician) may be shorter in duration than was previously thought and that the duration of the Middle and Late Cambrian (c. 22 Ma) was much less than that of the Early Cambrian (c. 33 Ma). Cambrian trilobite zones locally had an average duration as short as 1 Ma.

A U–Pb zircon date of 483 ± 1 Ma is recorded from an uppermost Tremadoc K-bentonite from the Chesley Drive Group on McLeod Brook, eastern Cape Breton Island. The associated fauna, with the trilobite Peltocare rotundifrons, is also known from the Reversing Falls section in Saint John, New Brunswick, and the traditional reference of the latter section to the Arenig is incorrect. A 483 ± 1 Ma age is significantly older than a U – Pb zircon age reported from the classical base of the Arenig Series in north Wales and about 10 Ma older than strata regarded herein as upper Arenig in central Newfoundland. If the global standard for the base of the Arenig is defined at the Tetragraptus approximatus Zone base, then the base of the type Arenig in Wales is younger than the latter horizon. The McLeod Brook occurrence is from an uppermost Tremadoc (Hunnebergian Stage) interval that has been removed below the unconformity in north Wales. The age of the Tremadoc –Arenig series boundary remains uncertain; however, a tentative estimate that it is significantly younger than 483 Ma is suggested by fossil evidence.