40Ar/39Ar dating of the Honghuaqiao Formation in SE China

Abstract

The Jehol Biota, defined as the characteristic Eosestheria-Ephemeropsis-Lycoptera assemblage (Grabau, 1923, Bulletin of the Geological Survey of China), is widely distributed in eastern and central Asia (Li et al., 1982, Acta Geologica Sinica; Chen, 1988, Acta Palaeontologica Sinica). Abundant and varied fossils of the terrestrial Jehol Biota, including plants, insects, dinosaurs, birds, mammals, and freshwater invertebrates, have been discovered from the Dabeigou, the Yixian and the Jiufotang Formations (or their correlative strata) in northeast China from the Liaoning and Hebei Provinces and Inner Mongolia (Chen and Jin, 1999, Acta Palaeontologica Sinica). In addition, strata that may be correlative with the classic Jehol fossil-bearing formations have been identified extensively in central and eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, Mongolia, and Siberia. In the past three decades mollusk, conchostracan, ostracod, insect, fish, and plant fossils from localities in southeastern Chin...