Worm-Like Fossil Assemblage from Niutitang Formation of Fuquan County, Guizhou Province

A large number of macrofossils were preserved in-situ as carbonaceous compressions in black shales of the Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in Weiganping area of Fuquan, Guizhou Province. The microstructure characters of these fossils are not clear. It is difficult to catalogue most fossils, which belong to some problematic fossils. The fossil assemblages mainly include worm-like fossils, rhabdopleurid-like fossils, tubular fossils and trace fossils, and a small amount of other fossils such as hyolithys, sponge spicules etc. The worm-like fossil assemblages are dominated by worm-like fossils and rhabdopleurid-like fossils, whose size is large. The fossil-bearing bed is located proximately on the nickel-molybdenum multi-metals layer. The worm-like fossil assemblage from the Niutitang Formation in Fuquan is equivalent to that of Zunyi biotas (lower biota of the Niutitang Formation), but different in predominant groups. The discovery of the worm-like fossil assemblage in Fuquan enriches the Cambrian Niutitang biota, and provides new information and materials for the study of evolution of early metazoans. Further studies of the worm-like fossil assemblage will surely provide more favorable evidences of paleontology for the ancient environment recovery and taphonomy research.