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:
“... the mass migrations now habitual in our nation are disastrous to the family and to the formation of individual character. It is impossible to create a stable society if something like a third of our people are constantly moving about. We cannot grow fine human beings, any more than we can grow fine trees, if they are constantly torn up by the roots and transplanted ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)