Maotianshan Shales
The Maotianshan Shales (帽天山页岩) are a series of Early Cambrian sedimentary deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their Konservat Lagerstätten, deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales form one of some forty Cambrian fossil locations worldwide exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue, comparable to the fossils of the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada. They take their name from Maotianshan Hill (Chinese: 帽天山; pinyin: Màotiānshān; lit. 'Hat Sky Mountain') in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, China.
| Maotianshan Shale | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Cambrian Stage 3, Qiongzhusian age local stage ≤ | |
Outcrop of the Maotianshan Shale, site of the discovery of the Chengjiang Biota | |
| Type | Member |
| Unit of | Chiungchussu Formation |
| Area | multiple 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi) |
| Thickness | 50 m (160 ft) |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Shale |
| Other | Mudstone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 26.7°N 108.4°E |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 28.1°N 154.3°E |
| Region | Chengjiang County, Yunnan |
| Country | China |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Maotianshan Hill |
| Location | Maotianshan Hill |
| Region | Chengjiang County, Yunnan |
| Country | China |
| Part of a series on |
| The Cambrian explosion |
|---|
The most famous assemblage of organisms are referred to as the Chengjiang biota for the multiple scattered fossil sites in Chengjiang. The age of the Chengjiang Lagerstätte is locally termed Qiongzhusian, a stage correlated to the late Atdabanian Stage in Siberian sequences of the middle of the Early Cambrian. The shales date to ≤518 million years ago. The shales also contain the slightly younger Guanshan biota from Malong District in Yunnan, Kaili biota and Balang fauna in Guizhou, Shipai fauna in Hubei, and sponge faunas of Guizhou and Anhui.
Along with the Burgess Shale, the Maotianshan Shales are remarked as "our best window into the Cambrian 'explosion'", especially on the origin of chordates.