2000/05/05 by Mark W. Martin, Dmitriy Grazhdankin, Samuel A. Bowring +3 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geological Studies and Exploration #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
paper · doi:10.1126/science.288.5467.841
openalex publication_date 2000/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A uranium-lead zircon age for a volcanic ash interstratified with fossil-bearing, shallow marine siliciclastic rocks in the Zimnie Gory section of the White Sea region indicates that a diverse assemblage of body and trace fossils occurred before 555.3 +/- 0.3 million years ago. This age is a minimum for the oldest well-documented triploblastic bilaterian Kimberella. It also makes co-occurring trace fossils the oldest that are reliably dated. This determination of age implies that there is no simple relation between Ediacaran diversity and the carbon isotopic composition of Neoproterozoic seawater.