Skeletal fossils and microfacies analysis of the lowermost Cambrian in the southwestern margin of the North China Platform

• Diverse skeletal fossils from lowermost Cambrian of North China Platform are reported.
• Fossils support the proximity of paleogeographic position of North China and Australia.
• Bioclastic shoal formed by sessileorganism-skeleton assembling and vagileorganism-skeleton accumulating.
• Depositional model of mixed siliciclastic-carbonate rocks of the epeiric platform is reconstructed.

The Xinji and Zhushadong formations are the oldest record of Cambrian deposits in the southwestern margin of the North China Platform. The two lithostratigraphic units are carbonate-dominated in lithology and are Cambrian Series 2 in age. The basal unit, the Xinji Formation yields diverse skeletal fossils, including sponge spicules, chancelloriid sclerites, hyoliths, micromolluscs, trilobites, echinoderm ossicles, cambroclaves, tianzhushanellids, protoconodonts and other small shelly fossils. The fossil assemblage, as the earliest fauna of the Cambrian in North China, provides an important window to investigate the Cambrian explosion in the region and contains fossil elements with biostratigraphical significance. Seven microfacies types of the Xinji and Zhushadong formations are recognized: (1) phosphorized and selectively dolomitized bioclastic grainstone, (2) dolomitized ooid grainstone, (3) dolomitized peloid wackstone, (4) lime mudstone preserved as dolomitic microsparite, (5) siliciclastic wackstone, (6) calcareous siltstone, and (7) breccia. The different microfacies are traced to three successive depositional environments, beginning with a bioclastic shoal, then a mixed-depositional back-shoal and finally an oolitic shoal. The system of the shoal and back-shoal is interpreted as representing the mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposition during the initial transgression of the North China Platform as well as the early development of an epeiric environment.