Paibi (), a village in Paibi Township (),

Huayuan County Huayuan County () is a county of Hunan Province, China, it is under the administration of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture. Located on the western margin of the province and the southwestern Xiangxi, it is immediately adjacent to the borders of Gui ...

Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture; Tujia: ; Miao: is an autonomous prefecture of the People's Republic of China. It is located in northwestern Hunan province.) being an abbreviation for Hunan and ( zh, labels=no, p=xī) meaning 'w ...

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

, China, is the location of the

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), sometimes referred to as a golden spike, is an internationally agreed upon reference point on a stratigraphic section which defines the lower boundary of a stage on the geologic time scale. ...

(GSSP) which marks the boundary between the third and

Furongian The Furongian is the fourth and final epoch and series of the Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding ...

epochs of the

Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...

Period on the

geologic time scale The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochro ...

. Paibi was selected over the Kyrshabakty River section, Malyi Karatau,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, and the GSSP was ratified by the

International Union of Geological Sciences The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to global cooperation in the field of geology. As of 2023, it represents more than 1 million geoscientists around the world. About Fo ...

in late 2003. It established the first formally agreed upon subdivision of the Cambrian. The village gives its name to the

Paibian The Paibian is the lowest stage of the Furongian Series of the Cambrian System. The Paibian is also the first age of the Furongian Epoch of the Cambrian Period. It follows the Guzhangian ( Miaolingian series of the Cambrian) and is succeede ...

Age in the Cambrian Period. The Paibi section occurs within the Huaqiao Formation, which consists of a thick succession of carbonate beds deposited in the outer part of the Jiangnan Slope Belt, and extends from the middle Cambrian through the Lower

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

. It satisfies all the

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

and

biostratigraphic Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. "Biostratigraphy." ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Biology ...

requirements for a GSSP, is readily accessible, and includes chemostratigraphic, palaeogeographic,

facies In geology, a facies ( , ; same pronunciation and spelling in the plural) is a body of rock with distinctive characteristics. The characteristics can be any observable attribute of rocks (such as their overall appearance, composition, or con ...

-relationship, and sequence-

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

information. The section lies at an elevation of 774 metres. The evolution of '' Glyptagnostus reticulatus'' (an agnostoid

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

) from more basal species of the genus ''Glyptagnostus'' marks the boundary. Other markers which occur near the boundary include the first appearance of the conodont '' Westergaardodina proligula'' and the Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion, a large positive shift in

carbon-13 Carbon-13 (13C) is a natural, stable isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing six protons and seven neutrons. As one of the environmental isotopes, it makes up about 1.1% of all natural carbon on Earth. Detection by mass spectrometry A m ...

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

References

* * {{cite web, url=http://www.iugs.org/iugs/news/china_paibian_gspike.htm , title=Another "Golden Spike" in China , publisher=International Union of Geological Sciences , date=28 November 2003 , accessdate=2006-06-30 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041115220416/http://www.iugs.org/iugs/news/china_paibian_gspike.htm , archivedate=November 15, 2004 Villages in China Stratigraphy of Asia