Exotic facies episodes of a carbonate platform: implications for middle and late Cambrian ecosystems and impact of bioturbation in the Alborz Basin, Iran

The sedimentological and ichnological data of the Mila Group in the Alborz Basin, northern Iran indicate that the appearance of exotic facies and resurgence of microbialites resulted from the development of extraordinary palaeoceanographic conditions with widespread environmental stress and enhanced precipitation of CaCO3. Inhospitable environmental conditions in the Mila Group platform led to a considerable reduction in ichnodiversity, bioturbation intensity, depth and size of burrows, which led to periods of dominating calcimicrobe ecology. The development of exotic, or anachronistic facies started around the Cambrian Stage 4-Wuliuan boundary, probably simultaneous with the SPICE event whereas the Furongian exotic facies period probably took place simultaneous with the HERB event. Biotic and physico-chemical changes in the ocean during these events may have led as well to the virtual absence of the mixed layer and infaunal ecospace utilisation in the deposits of the Mila Group. Nevertheless, the local presence of metazoan-microbial build-ups that established between the two suggested exotic facies developments indicates that these periods started at the Cambrian Stage 4-Wuliuan boundary interval, but a fluctuation of abnormal palaeoceanographic conditions and ambient normal marine conditions took place during the Miaolingian and Furongian in the Alborz Basin as a representative of northern Gondwanan margin.

Cambrian–Ordovician boundary age and duration of the lowest Ordovician Tremadoc Series based on U–Pb zircon dates from Avalonian Wales

Two thin volcaniclastic sandstone beds in the Bryn-llin-fawr road section in North Wales overlie an apparent sequence boundary within the uppermost Cambrian Acerocare Zone and are overlain by lowest Ordovician (lower Tremadoc) Rhabdinopora faunas. U–Pb geochronology of zircons from these sandstones yields a maximum Cambrian–Ordovician boundary age of 489±0.6 Ma. This age indicates both that the Tremadoc Series (lowest Ordovician) may be shorter in duration than was previously thought and that the duration of the Middle and Late Cambrian (c. 22 Ma) was much less than that of the Early Cambrian (c. 33 Ma). Cambrian trilobite zones locally had an average duration as short as 1 Ma.