A Vendian–Cambrian boundary succession from the northwestern margin of the Siberian Platform: stratigraphy, palaeontology, chemostratigraphy and correlation

1998/07/01 by Julie K. Bartley, JULIE K. BARTLEY, Michael C. Pope +7 · 121 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #Carbonate rock #Cenozoic #Chemostratigraphy #Dolostone #Ecological succession #Ecology #Excursion #Geological Studies and Exploration #Geology #Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis #Isotopes of carbon #Paleontology #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Phanerozoic #Proterozoic #Sedimentary rock #Stratigraphy #Structural basin #Tectonics #Total organic carbon #Trace fossil

paper · doi:10.1017/s0016756898008772

published in Geological Magazine 135(4), 473-494 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 1998/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Siberia contains several key reference sections for studies of biological and environmental evolution across the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition. The Platonovskaya Formation, exposed in the Turukhansk region of western Siberia, is an uppermost Proterozoic to Cambrian succession whose trace and body fossils place broad limits on the age of deposition, but do not permit detailed correlation with boundary successions elsewhere. In contrast, a striking negative carbon isotopic excursion in the lower part of the Platonovskaya Formation permits precise chemostratigraphic correlation with upper-most Yudomian successions in Siberia, and possibly worldwide. In addition to providing a tool for correlation, the isotopic excursion preserved in the Platonovskaya and contemporaneous successions documents a major biogeochemical event, likely involving the world ocean. The excursion coincides with the palaeontological breakpoint between Ediacaran- and Cambrian-style assemblages, suggesting a role for biogeochemical change in evolutionary events near the Proterozoic Cambrian boundary.

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