2003(3):305-316.
DOI: 1
CSTR:
Abstract:
Division of the Cambrian System into lower, middle and upper series was first suggested by Walcott(1891a,b) and has been followed by all subsequent workers. A stage classification has been proposed only for the Upper Cambrian of North America (Howell and others, 1944), based on the formational succession of the Minnesota Wisconsin region (Lochman Balk, 1971). Recently 4 new series and 6 new stages names for the Cambrian of Laurentia have been established by American and Canadian authors (Ludvigsen and Westrop, 1985; Palmer, 1998). The classical Middle and Upper Cambrian sequence for China is in Shandong, where is the type area for the establishment of the Middle and Upper Cambrian stages of China (Lu and Dong, 1952; Lu, 1962). Because the Lower Cambrian deposits in Shandong is incomplete,stage subdivisions have been proposed with those of eastern Yunnan in the Lower Cambrian (Lu, 1941,1962). In the first synthesis of North American and Chinese Cambrian biostratigraphy (Howell et al. ,1944; Lu, 1962), much of the present biostratigraphic framework on both sides of the Pacific was established. During the last 50 years, many publications concerning Cambrian trilobite faunas, biostratigraphic studies as well as ecological analysis of Cambrian trilobite distribution based on tectonic setting by both American and Chinese palaeontologists, have increased our knowledge and understanding of the Cambrian biostratigraphic correlation between North America and China (Chang and Jell, 1987; Jegorova et al., 1963;Kurtz, 1981; Lochman Balk and Wilson, 1958; Lochman Balk,1970,1974;Lu et al., 1974;Nogami, 1966; Palmer, 1965,1966,1971,1977,1981,1982;Palmer and Halley,1979;Palmer and Peel, 1979; Robison, 1976; Saito, 1933, 1934;Shergold and Nicoll, 1992;Shergold, 1993;Sundberg and McCollum, 1997). Based on these more recent palaeontological studies, it now seems possible to improve Cambrian correlation between China and North America made by different authors since 1937 (Endo, In Endo and Resser, 1937; Howell, 1947; Chang, 1957, 1986; Lu, 1962; Shergold, Laurie and Sun, 1990; Shergold, 1997; Peng, 1992).
