An Early–Middle Ordovician acritarch and prasinophyte assemblage from the Meitan Formation in Qijiang, Chongqing, South China

Abstract

Acritarchs and prasinophytes representing 39 species in 26 genera are identified from the Early–Middle Ordovician Meitan Formation in the Guanyinqiao section, Qijiang, Chongqing in South China. This palynomorph assemblage is dominated by the genera Polygonium (35.2%), Striatotheca (15.2%), Stelliferidium (12.5%) and Leiosphaeridia (10.2%) showing similarities to assemblages from deflexus–suecicus graptolite biozone (Meitan Formation, upper Floian–lower Dapingian) in the Honghuayuan section and can be correlated to the contemporaneous global acritarch assemblages. The composition of the acritarch assemblage from the Meitan Formation of the Guanyinqiao section implies an inner-shelf depositional environment for the studied successions.

Keywords::

• acritarchs
• Early–Middle Ordovician
• Meitan Formation
• Qijiang
• South China

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Vivi Vajda and another anonymous referee and the guest-editor Mikael Calner for revising the manuscript and giving very useful suggestion. The authors acknowledge funding from several Chinese projects (NSFC41072001, 41272012, 41221001 and 41290260). This is a contribution to the IGCP project 591.