Early and middle Cambrian metazoan biodiversity and fine-scale stratigraphy: aspects of the Cambrian Radiation Event and environmental controls on Cambrian continents

该项目旨在准确记录寒武纪各大洲寒武纪第二和第三系列期间生物群和沉积环境的变化。这种变化被认为是(I)生物多样性的变化和多样化，表明了主要动物群体的系统发育特征，以及(Ii)区域环境和最终的全球环境的转移或转换。对这些变化的更好的约束不仅将使地层对比得到显著的精细化，而且还将为迄今研究较少的从早寒武世(寒武纪系列2)具有高度地方性的骨骼动物群向中寒武世早期(寒武纪系列3)明显更统一的动物群的转化提供线索，该转化以所谓的寒武纪辐射事件的末期为特征，这是整个地球历史上有机世界最戏剧性的演化时期。这也将有助于更好地理解从传统的含化石的早寒武世地层经过缺氧、经常停滞的环境到在大多数大陆上观察到的令人惊讶的统一的中寒武世环境的变化。计划中的研究活动将侧重于对未完成研究的骨骼化石进行分类调查，以及研究寒武纪大陆不同地区的动物群组成和生物变化与海平面波动及其特征的相关性。将对来自不同地区的以前未描述的骨骼后生动物化石(主要是三叶虫)进行系统的研究和描述。这个为期三年的项目的最终目标是对热带和温带古大陆(即西冈瓦那、阿瓦隆尼亚、波罗的海、劳伦蒂亚和扬子地台)的动物群和海平面变化进行全球综合，这是地球历史上最戏剧性的时期之一。这一综合将有助于解决关于这一区间的洲际关联的高度分歧的观点以及这些变化的未被研究的原因，并是对国际科学委员会全球细分项目的重大贡献。

The project aims at a precise documentation of changes in the biota and depositional environments during the Cambrian Series 2 and 3 on various Cambrian continents. Such changes are believed to portray (i) changes and diversification in the biodiversity that indicates the character of phylogeny of major animal groups, and (ii) shifts or conversions in regional, and eventually global environments. Better constraints on these changes will not only permit significant refinements in stratigraphic correlation to be achieved but they will also provide clues for the so far poorly studied conversions from skeletal faunas with a high degree of endemism in the early Cambrian (Cambrian Series 2) to distinctly more uniform faunas in the early middle Cambrian (Cambrian Series 3) that features the terminal phase of the so-called Cambrian Radiation Event, the most dramatic period of evolution in the organic world during the entire earth history. It will also contribute to a better understanding of changes from generally well oxygenated and relatively high energy environments of the traditional fossil-bearing early Cambrian strata via dysoxic, often stagnant condition to the surprisingly uniform environments of the middle Cambrian observed on most continents. The planned research activities will focus on taxonomic investigations of imperfectly studied skeletal fossils together with studies on faunal composition and the correlation of the biotic changes with sea-level fluctuations and its characters in various regions of the Cambrian continents. Previously undescribed skeletal metazoan fossils (primarily trilobites) from various regions will be systematically studied and described. The ultimate objective of the three-year project is a global synthesis of faunal and sea-level changes on tropical and temperate palaeocontinents (i.e., West Gondwana, Avalonia, Baltica, Laurentia, and the Yangtze Platform) for one of the most dramatic intervals in earth history. The synthesis will allow a resolution of highly divergent views for intercontinental correlation of this interval and the poorly investigated reasons for the changes and is a major contribution to the global subdivision project of the ISCS.