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Discussion of ‘First finds of problematic Ediacaran fossil Gaojiashania in Siberia and its origin’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2010

Yaoping Cai
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China; yaopingcai@qq.com
Hong Hua
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev
Affiliation:
Área y Museo de Paleontología, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, c/Pedro Cerbuna, 12, E-50009, Zaragoza, Spain; ayzhur@mail.ru
José Antonio Gámez Vintaned
Affiliation:
Área y Museo de Paleontología, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza, c/Pedro Cerbuna, 12, E-50009, Zaragoza, Spain
Andrey Yu. Ivantsov
Affiliation:
Palaeontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117997, Russia

Extract

Y. Cai & H. Hua comment: Zhuravlev, Gámez Vintaned & Ivantsov (2009) reported the problematic Ediacaran fossil Gaojiashania annulucosta in Siberia and they considered that this is the first find of Gaojiashania outside China, since Gaojiashania had previously only been reported from the Gaojiashan Member of the middle Dengying Formation in the Ningqiang area, southern Shaanxi Province, South China. However, we believe that the so-called Siberian Gaojiashania was mis-identified, and what was described as Gaojiashania annulucosta by Zhuravlev, Gámez Vintaned & Ivantsov (2009) is more appropriately ascribed to Shaanxilithes ningqiangensis, another problematic Ediacaran fossil that has also been known from the Gaojiashan Member in Shaanxi Province of South China (Chen, Chen & Lao, 1975; Xing et al. 1984), as well as the stratigraphically equivalent Taozichong Formation in Guizhou Province (Hua, Chen & Zhang, 2004) and the Jiucheng Member (Dengying Formation) in Yunnan Province of South China (Zhu & Zhang, 2005), the Zhoujieshan Formation in Qinghai Province (Shen et al. 2007), and the Zhengmuguan Formation in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of North China (Shen et al. 2007).

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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