The Ediacaran Shibantan biota in the Yangtze Gorges area: perspectives from quantitative paleontology and ecospace occupancy
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Abstract:
Ediacara-type fossils constitute the most representative Ediacaran macroscopic and soft-bodied biotic assemblages (i.e., Ediacara biotas). Ediacara biotas have been classified into three different assemblages—the Avalon, White Sea, and Nama assemblages mainly based on their ages, taxonomic compositions, and lithologies. The late Ediacaran Shibantan biota from the Yangtze Gorges area is a rare example of Ediacara-type fossil assemblages preserved in carbonate rocks. In this study, we applied quantitative approaches, including multivariate and network analyses, to recognize four different assemblages, as-signed the Shibantan biota to one of these assemblages, and preliminarily discussed ecospace occupancy in the Shibantan bi-ota, as compared with the three classic and broadly accepted assemblages mentioned above. The results of cluster and net-work analyses are inclined to classify the Shibantan biota as a member of the Nama assemblage. It is also worth noting that the placement of the Shibantan biota is deviated from other typical fossil localities of Nama assemblage in the result of NMDS analysis, possibly caused by the uniqueness and complexity of the Shibantan taxonomic composition. The Shibantan biota is dominated by sessile and mobile benthic organisms, whose unique body fossils and abundant and complex trace fos-sils expand our understanding of ecospace occupancy during this time interval. From the perspective of ecospace occupancy, the Shibantan biota is more complex than the Avalon assemblage, similar to or slightly more complex than typical Nama and White Sea assemblages.
