Contents:

What is the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY?

Organization of the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY

Accomplishments, achievements and products

Recent activities

A virtual visit to the Cambrian world

What is the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY?

The INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY (ISCS) is an organization of the INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON STRATIGRAPHY (ICS), which itself is a daughter of the INTERNATIONAL UNION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES (IUGS). Main overall objectives of the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY are

a. To complete and publish regional correlation charts for the Cambrian System, and

b. To develop a global stage-level chronostratigraphic classification of the Cambrian System.

The Cambrian System is currently without formally agreed international stages. This partly reflects the scarcity of suitable biostratigraphic markers for intercontinental correlation at the stage level and faunal provincialism. However, research in progress on trilobites and conodonts (for the latter half of the Late Cambrian) show promise for long range correlation and definition of stages. The time interval is of growing international interest and research is being actively pursued by ISCS members.

Organization of the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY

Present officers of the INTERNATIONAL SUBCOMMISSION ON CAMBRIAN STRATIGRAPHY are

Dr. John H. Shergold
La Freunie, Benayes, 19510 Masseret, France. Tel. (+33)-555-981242, E-mail [shergold@isem.univ-montp2.fr].

Dr. Ed Landing
New York State Geological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, NY 12230, U.S.A. Tel. (+1)-518-473-8071, Fax (+1)-518-473-8496, E-mail [elanding@museum.nysed.gov].

Prof. Dr. Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev
Palaeontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciece, ul. Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117647, Russia. Phone (+95)-339-91-44, Fax (+95)-339-12-66, E-mail [azhur@paleo.msk.su].

apl. Prof. Dr. Gerd Geyer
Institut für Paläontologie, Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Pleicherwall 1, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. Phone (+49)-931-312599, Fax (+49)-931-312504, E-mail [palo001@rzroe.uni-wuerzburg.de].

Furthermore, the ICSC has 16 Voting Members, 8 Honorary Members, and 91 Corresponding Members (see MEMBERSHIP LIST). The ISCS's voting members were selected to maintain a balance between regional experience and the expertise of various stratigraphic and paleontologic disciplines. Expertise is supplemented by corresponding members from individual countries or regions. Corresponding members are encouraged to communicate with ISCS working groups and the ISCS executive to actively participate in the development of a global stage-level chronostratigraphic classification of the Cambrian System.

Three Working Groups of the ISCS exist at the moment:

  1. The Cambrian Subdivision Working Group make recommendations for global stage subdivisions.

  2. The Regional Correlation Charts Working Group is active in production of regional correlation charts for the Cambrian System.

  3. The Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Working Group develops documentation for correlation of the global lower boundary stratotype of the Cambrian System.

Interface with other international projects

The ISCS has been traditionally affiliated with I.G.C.P. projects, particularly the following:

The ISCS Chairman is a voting member of the Cambrian-Ordovician Boundary Working Group and Correlation Chart Working Group coordinator.

Accomplishments, achievements and products

1. Regional Correlation Charts

Regional correlation charts on the Cambrian System have been generated and published since 1983. The following issues are available from the IUGS Secretariat, Geological Survey of Norway, P.O. Box 3006, N-7001 Trondheim, Norway. See LIST.

2. Publications of the Cambrian Subdivision Working Group(s)

The organizers of the meetings of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group(s) generated special volumes as follows:

 

 

3. Recent articles
A number of comprehensive articles of general interest dealing entirely or at least partly with Cambrian stratigraphy published since late in 1995 are shown on the LIST OF ARTICLES. A set of thematic reports on the Late Neoproterozoic-Cambrian of southwest Mongolia represent achievements initiated during a ISCS/IGCP Project 303 field excursion in 1993 and provide a new view for the tectonic setting of Cambrian rocks. Similar activities concentrate on the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition of the northeast Siberian Platform and its chemo- and isotopic stratigraphy as well as its basin dynamics. They were published cummulatively in Geological Magazine.

1997 through 1999 Activities

(1) Avalon 1997 - The Cambrian Standard, organized by E. Landing and S. R. Westrop, was the 3rd International Conference on Cambrian subdivisions and the official meeting of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group. It was held in association with I.G.C.P. Project 366 (Ecological Aspects of the Cambrian Radiation) in southeastern Newfoundland and New Brunswick, 11-21 August, 1997. A first ISCS meeting was held during the conference in St. John, New Brunswick. This meeting was attended by the ISCS Chairman and the First Vice-Chairman of the ISCS as well as a number of Canadian and Australian Voting Members.
A special volume generated for this meeting is in press:
Landing, E. and S. R. Westrop (eds.) 1998. AVALON 1997 - The Cambrian Standard. Third International Field Trip of the Working Group on Cambrian Chronostratiography and I.U.G.S. Project 366. New York State Museum Bulletin 492. 96 p., 29 figs.
This volume includes Introduction; a comprehensive, illustrated field trip guide to the latest Precambrian-lowest Ordovician of eastern Newfoundland and southern New Brunswick by E. Landing and S. R. Westrop; a revision of the Cambrian stratigraphic nomenclature and sequence stratigraphy of the Cambrian of Avalonian North America with a comparison with Avalonian Britain by E. Landing and S. R. Westrop; and seven abstracts of oral presentations.
Anticipated publication date March 1, 1998; contact Dr. Ed Landing, NYS Geological Survey, The State Education Department, Albany, NY 12230, E-mail elanding@museum.nysed.gov, for price and ordering information.
 

(2) The Second International Trilobite Conference, organized by S. R. Westrop, was held at Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, 22-25 August, 1997. More than 20 ISCS members (including the Chairman and the Secretary) attended the meeting, and many of the presentations were relevant to the ISCS objectives. Abstracts with Program are planned to be published as a separate volume (J. Adrain & S. R. Westrop, eds.). A special volume with transactions will be published in the Journal of Paleontology series. The Second International Trilobite Conference saw a Subcommission meeting. Its agenda included a report on the Avalon 1997 meeting, progress in intercontinental chronostratigraphic correlation, and activities of the Laurentian Stages working group (A. R. Palmer, speaker).

(3) A field trip to the southern part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, created as a pre-meeting excursion to the Second International Trilobite Conference, took place 15-20 August 1997 (organized and lead by B. D. E. Chatterton and B. Pratt). It provided opportunity to visit a number of Cambrian sections that are crucial not only for the regional stratigraphy. For most participants it meant a pilgrimage to the Burgess Shale quarries, Stephen Formation, in Yoho National Park. The party was hosted at the Burgess quarries by the excavation crew of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, with their head, D. Collins. Dr. Collins presented material of the 1997 field season on Walcott quarry. Among the participants were a few members of the ISCS (including the Secretary). D. Collins and T. Fletcher, who actively participated in the excavations, are also members of the ISCS.

(4) The Second Friends of the Alum Shales Meeting was held on Vestergötland, Sweden, between 26-30 May 1997. It was organized by Per Ahlberg and Euan Clarkson and hosted members of the ISCS.

(5) A. R. Palmer proposed a complete set of Cambrian stages for Laurentia the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (1998). The issue focuses on a late Early Cambrian stage for Laurentia; a significant contribution to the debate on Cambrian Stages and their potential intercontinental correlation. This article will be used as a basis for a forthcoming Laurentia-South America contribution of the Cambrian Correlations Working Group.

(6) The 4th Field Conference of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group was held in Sweden, August 24-31, 1998, organized by Per Ahlberg. Field excursions took place in Scania and Västergötland. Fifteen ISCS members (including the Chairman) attended the meeting. Most of the presentations held during the scientific sessions on August 27-28 were relevant to the ISCS objectives. In addition, a Subcommission meeting took place on during the conference on August 28, 1998. This meeting focused on Cambrian global correlation levels and possible chronostratigraphic units as well as a comprehensive correlation table presented by J. H. Shergold. The abstracts for this meeting were published as a Lunds Publications in Geology volume (P. Ahlberg, M. Eriksson & I. Olsson, eds.). An excursion guide was published separately as a Lunds Publications in Geology volume (P. Ahlberg, ed.).

(7) Four regional Correlation Charts are in progress.

(8) Synonymy Files. The principal project of the Institute for Cambrian Studies is the development of electronic data bases for objective synonymy files on the major groups of Cambrian organisms. The trilobites are most complete in card files, olenelloid data already available as electronic files. F. Debrenne has prepared files for the archaeocyaths, S. Bengtson for small shelly fossils, G. Geyer on Eodiscina.

(9) The International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy has generated a Cambrian Global Stages Project (CGSP) that is gradually advancing. Activities of the Cambrian Stage Subdivision Working Group have lead to a progressive agreement on a number of major chronostratigraphic units comprising the Cambrian. These activities culminated in the 3rd and 4th International Conferences on Cambrian subdivisions in southeastern Newfoundland and New Brunswick, 11-21 August, 1997, and in Sweden, 24-31 August, 1998. A wider audience was addressed at the Third International Trilobite Symposium at Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, August 22-25, 1997. Accordingly, the main goal of the Working Group, a decision on formal Cambrian global stages and the selection of GSSPs, are in reach, if compromises can be accepted and personal and regional interests can are subordinated.
Nevertheless, in order to achieve a precise picture about a general framework and about correlatability of particular horizons, the executive reviewed the position of the Subcommission members in this context. A summary of these positions was presented in a questionnaire in Newsletter 1998-2 and on the 4th International Conferences on Cambrian subdivisions in Lund.
Recently discussed biostratigraphic horizons are as follows:
 

(10) Field excursion to Proposed Lower to lower Middle Cambrian Laurentian Stage Boundary Sections in Nevada, U.S.A., is scheduled for September 14-23, 1999. This field will visit sites/sections that show the stratotype or parastratotype basal boundaries of the newly proposed Cambrian stages for Laurentia (Montezuman, Dyeran, Delameran, see Palmer, 1998) and the other Laurentian stages proposed by Ludvigsen and Westrop (1985) as well as the best Laurentian section showing the atavus-gibbus boundary, which is one of the proposed international series boundary (Robison and others, 1977).

Registration fee of US$ 350 includes lodging and guidebook, due by May 1, 1999. Contact
 

(11) Field excursions in South China to be held in 1999. The excursions will include a seven-day field trip to the Guizhou Province and a five-day field-trip in Guilin, Guangxi Autonomous Region of Zhuang). Of particular interest for ISCS members and Cambrian studies is:

 
Contact Prof. Dr. Yu Chang Min, 39 Beijing Dong Road, 210008 Nanjing, P. R. China, E-mail yucm@pub.jlonline.com, for registration and additional information.
(12) The "International Symposium on the changes of animal body plans and their fossil record" will be held 20-25 June, 1999, at the Spring Hotel on the Fuxian Lake near Kunming, P.R. China under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There is opportunity to visit the marvellous fossil site at Chengjiang. An optional pre-symposium excursion (June 13-19, 1999) offers a trip to the Precambrian fossil site at Weng-an and to the Lower Cambrian fossil site at Zhijiang, Guizhou. A post-symposium excursion will visit the Dali and Lijiang sites in northwestern Yunnan.
For information and registration contact Prof. Junyuan Chen, Field Station of Early Life Research Centre, Department of Biology, Sanjiacun, Jinning, Kunming 650612, P. R. China, E-mail chenjy@jlonline.com.

See also IUGS homepage.

Don't leave without a VIRTUAL VISIT TO THE CAMBRIAN WORLD

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Page maintained by G. Geyer and M. Streng,
Institut für Paläontologie, Universität Würzburg, e-mail palo001@rzroe.uni-wuerzburg.de
last updated February 24, 1999