Magnetic susceptibility cyclostratigraphy of the lower Schwarzrand Subgroup in southern Namibia refines temporal calibration of late Ediacaran bilaterian radiation

Abstract

The Nama Group in southern Namibia captures one of the best-preserved records of the last ∼10 million years of the Ediacaran Period, recording pivotal changes to Earth's biosphere and oceans. Within the Nama Group, the lower Schwarzrand Subgroup preserves early complex bilaterian trace fossils, but uncertainties surrounding the ages of their first occurrences hinder global correlation and the understanding of the rates at which critical biological changes occurred. This study presents magnetic susceptibility cyclostratigraphy of a recently acquired drill core that covers the Nudaus Formation and Nasep Member within the lower Schwarzrand Subgroup. Spectral analysis reveals a hierarchy of orbital cycles that could be responsible for the repeating depositional sequences at various length scales in the Schwarzrand Subgroup. Matching the wavelengths of the orbital cycles to their expected periodicities, we established sedimentation rates throughout the stratigraphy. Utilizing available UPb ages from correlative outcrop sections and the sedimentation rates from cyclostratigraphy, we refine the age-depth model for the lower Schwarzrand Subgroup. Our new age-depth model places tighter temporal constraints on the first appearances of complex trace fossils, thus constraining the earliest major radiation of bilaterian metazoans and contributing to a better-calibrated chronostratigraphy of the terminal Ediacaran Period.