The Miaolingian is the third Series of the
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...
Period, and was formally named in 2018.
It lasted from about to million years ago and is divided in ascending order into 3 stages: the
Wuliuan,
Drumian, and
Guzhangian. The Miaolingian is preceded by the unnamed
Cambrian Series 2 and succeeded by the
Furongian series.
Definition
A number of proposals for fossils and type sections were made before it was formally ratified in 2018. The most promising fossil markers were seen to be the respective first appearances of either trilobite species ''
Ovatoryctocara granulata'' or ''
Oryctocephalus indicus'',
which both have an age close to million years ago.
After some deliberation, the FAD of ''Oryctocephalus indicus'' was chosen to be the lower boundary marker, and the GSSP was placed in
Wuliu-Zengjiayan,
Guizhou,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
The Miaolingian-
Furongian boundary has the same definition as the
Paibian Stage. It is defined as the first appearance of ''
Glyptagnostus reticulatus'' around million years ago.
Subdivision
The Miaolingian is subdivided into the following stages:
References
*03
Geological epochs
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