Palaeoecology, ichno- and micropalaeontology, and facies architectures of the Cambrian succession in the southern Wadi Araba (Jordan Rift Valley): marginal-marine biotops and palaeogeographic reconstructions along the early Palaeozoic margin of W-Gondwana

该项目的第一阶段取得了非凡的成功，提供了许多非常重要（关键）的结果，这些结果大大扩展了我们对阿拉伯-努比亚地盾北部寒武纪的认识，并使该工作区域成为国际关注的古地理关键区域。在项目的第一阶段，从埃及（东部沙漠和西奈半岛）和约旦（死海地区）提供了许多新的沉积剖面和化石位置，产生了壮观的宏观、鱼类和（第一次）微型动物群，导致生物地层学缩小，分类和地层学修订，以及初步的古地理结果。在这一成功的基础上，这里建议的项目更新将集中调查迄今为止没有或几乎没有调查过的瓦迪阿拉巴南部（约旦裂谷南部）演代的古生态学、古生物学（主要是痕迹化石和微型动物群）以及沉积物和生物相方面。这将填补现存的、与东北非洲（东部沙漠和西奈半岛）、与南至中欧（西班牙、法国、意大利、德国）以及与小亚细亚地区（土耳其）之间明显的地层-古地理差距。作为项目第一阶段的补充，将特别关注西奈半岛和死海地区之间海侵的进展（作为跨区域对比水平）以及海侵的最大阶段（最大相带数量），这意味着瓦迪阿拉巴南部，它代表了东北非洲和中东寒武纪沉积中心之间的重要连接区域。此外，还将研究沉积系统和生态系统内部结构对最早古生代海平面波动的影响和反应，以及生物群与环境之间相互作用的特殊性和变化，特别是在直接海陆过渡地区。预期的结果将使工作区域（项目的第一阶段和更新阶段）的寒武纪调整到整个东北非洲和中东地区，并通过重建一致的沉积和生物相模式和地层格架将其纳入现代全球方案。预期的数据将大大有助于我们了解寒武纪非常特殊的沉积和生物系统和过程，就生物圈和外生动力学而言，寒武纪代表了地球演化中最令人兴奋和独特的地层阶段之一。

The extraordinary successful first phase of the project has provided numerous very important (key-) results which extended significantly our knowledge on the Cambrian at the northern Arabo–Nubian Shield, and which moved the working areas into the international interest as a palaeogeographic key region. During the first phase of the project numerous new sedimentary sections and fossil localities have been provided from Egypt (Eastern Desert and Sinai Peninsula) and from Jordan (Dead Sea area) yielding a spectacular macro-, ichno-, and (for the first time) micro-fauna, leading to a biostratigraphic narrowing, to taxonomic and stratigraphic revisions, and to preliminary palaeogeographic results. Based on this success, the here suggested project renewal will be focused on the investigation of hitherto not or only scarcely investigated palaeoecologic, palaeontologic (mainly trace fossils and micro-fauna) as well as sediment- and biofacies aspects of successions of the southern Wadi Araba (southern Jordan Rift Valley). This will close the still existing, distinct stratigraphic-palaeogeographic gaps to the NE-African (Eastern Desert and Sinai Peninsula), to the S- to Mid-European (Spain, France, Italy, Germany), and to the Asia Minor regions (Turkey). Complemental to the first phase of the project, special focus will be put on the progression of the marine regression (as a transregional correlation level) as well as on the maximum stage of the transgression (maximum number on facies belts) between the Sinai Peninsula and the Dead Sea region, what means the southern Wadi Araba, which represents an important connecting region between the Cambrian depo-centres in NE-Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, the consequences of and the response to earliest Palaeozoic Sea-level fluctuations by the internal structure of sedimentary and ecological systems as well as in the specificity and the changes of the interactions between biota and environment, especially in the direct marine-to-continental transitional areas, will be investigated. The expected results will enable the adjustment of the Cambrian of the working area (of both the first and the renewal phases of the project) into the whole NE-African and Middle East region, as well as its integration in modern global schemes by the reconstruction of consistent depositional and biofacies models and stratigraphic frames. The expected data will significantly contribute to our understanding of the very special sedimentary and biotic systems and processes of the Cambrian, which – regarding biosphere and exogenetic dynamics – represents one of the most exciting and unique stratigraphic phases in Earth’s evolution.