Fossil Association from the Lower Cambrian Yanjiahe Formation in the Yangtze Gorges Area, Hubei, South China

Abstract: Apart from previously reported Small Shelly Fossils (SSFs), a macroscopic fossil assemblage, comprising abundant algae, cone‐shaped tubular fossil forms, and probable impressions of a megascopic metazoan, comes from the Lower Cambrian Yanjiahe Formation in the Yangtze Gorges area of western Hubei Province, south China. The visible fossils are preserved in thinlaminated siltstone or muddy siltstone intercalated between 8–15 mm‐thick carbonate deposits, probably representing sedimentary settings of a constrained local depression in the shallow water carbonate platform during the Early Cambrian Meishucunian Stage. The macroscopic fossil association provides significant fossil evidence about the evolution of life from the late Precambrian to the ‘Cambrian explosion’ interval.