2026-10-12T00:47:33Z https://www.scidb.cn/oai

10.57760/sciencedb.36162 2026-05-08T15:18:35Z

2026-05-08 Data from: “Kimberella from the terminal Ediacaran Shibantan limestone, South China: the persistence of bilaterians during the White Sea-Nama transition” doi:10.57760/sciencedb.36162 en Kimberella is an important taxon of the Ediacara biota (~575–539 million years ago), because it is one of the few with a widely accepted affinity with the Metazoa and even the Bilateria. However, this genus has a very limited temporal and spatial distribution, with previously known occurrences mainly from siliciclastic rocks in the White Sea assemblage (~560–550 Ma) from Russia and South Australia. Here we report a complete Kimberella specimen and a possibly related resting trace from limestone of the terminal Ediacaran Shibantan Member (ca. 550–543 Ma), Dengying Formation, in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China. The new fossils represent the youngest known occurrence of Kimberella, and the first record of this genus from carbonate rocks, expanding its known spatial and environmental distributions. Integrated with previously reported Dickinsonia and complex trace fossils in the same and adjacent horizons, Shibantan biota offers an opportunity to test the biotic replacement hypothesis to account for the decline of the White Sea assemblage. This discovery also indicates that the Shibantan biota records a pivotal evolutionary and ecological transition, as well as possible temporal overlap, between the White Sea and Nama assemblages in the late Ediacaran. Ediacaran; Kimberella; South China Chengxi Wu Ke Pang Xiaopeng Wang Yarong Liu Phillip Boan Chuanming Zhou Zhe Chen Shuhai Xiao Xunlai Yuan PUBLIC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ dataset http://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2026.108164 Science Data Bank