Early Cambrian radiation of brachiopods: A perspective from South China

Depth related brachiopod faunas from the lower Cambrian Forteau Formation of southern Labrador and western Newfoundland, Canada

“…Brachiopod faunas from the lower Cambrian have been described from all palaeocontinents Gravestock et al, 2001;Zhang et al, 2008;Rozanov et a., 2010;Kouchinsky et al, 2012;Popov et al, 2015 and references therein). However, no detailed analysis of the connections between species distribution and depositional environment has been published beyond the general accounts presented by Bassett et al (1999) and Ushatinskaya (2001).…”

“…Brachiopods are among the most common and well-studied fossils in Cambrian rocks worldwide (Walcott, 1912;Williams et al, 1998;Ushatinskaya, 2008;Zhang et al, 2008). The first representatives appear in the Tommotian Stage of Siberia and Mongolia (Terrenuvian Series, Unnamed Stage 2; Skovsted et al, 2014bSkovsted et al, , 2015 and the brachiopod stem group (i.e.…”

“…Their utility for biostratigraphy and biogeography is hampered, however, because early Cambrian brachiopods remain poorly understood in terms of their ecology. Exceptionally preserved brachiopods exhibiting details of soft anatomy, in particular from the Chengjiang fauna of south China (Zhang et al, 2004(Zhang et al, , 2007(Zhang et al, , 2008(Zhang et al, , 2009(Zhang et al, , 2010(Zhang et al, , 2011 and the Burgess Shale (Holmer and Caron, 2006;Petterson Stolk et al, 2009;Topper et al, 2014Topper et al, , 2015 have recently yielded important insight into the autecology of early Cambrian brachiopods, but unfortunately the vast majority of described taxa have not been found in these exceptional faunas.…”

Oldest glosselline linguliform brachiopod with soft parts from the Lower Cambrian of Yunnan, Southern China

“…Although the Cambrian linguliform brachiopods were remarkably successful in colonizing early marine shelly environments (Walcott 1912;Rong 1974;Holmer & Popov 1996;Popov et al 1996;Bassett et al 1999;Zhang et al 2008), occurrences of their soft-bodied preservation are extremely rare and mostly restricted to a few Cambrian Konservat Lagerstätte, notably the famous Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Chen & Zhou 1997;Hou et al 2004). During the past decades, significant progress has been made towards understanding the taxonomy of brachiopod faunas in the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Rong 1974;Zhang et al 2008).…”

“…During the past decades, significant progress has been made towards understanding the taxonomy of brachiopod faunas in the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Rong 1974;Zhang et al 2008). Numerous detailed studies of soft-bodied preserved characteristics of linguliform brachiopod faunas from the Lower Cambrian of Yunnan provide unique information that cannot be obtained by only studying structures that are preserved on the mineralized valves (Jin et al 1993;Zhang et al 2003Zhang et al , 2004aZhang et al , 2004b and some have been essential in improving our understanding the Cambrian brachiopod communities (Zhang et al 2010(Zhang et al , 2011Wang et al 2012).…”