Fuping Fauna: A deep-water fauna in the prime of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Abstract

The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) greatly enriched marine biodiversity, promoted the complexification of ecosystems, and laid the foundation for the subsequent flourishing of marine life. The discovery of Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten is crucial for understanding the processes and ecosystem evolution associated with the GOBE. However, most known Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten are derived from shallow-water environments; those from deep-water (slope-basin) settings are extremely rare. This preservational bias severely limits a comprehensive understanding of the distribution and dynamic evolution of biodiversity in the Ordovician. Here, we report the Fuping Fauna, a deep-water slope facies Konservat-Lagerstätte from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) in the southern part of the North China craton. This fauna is composed mainly of eurypterids, cheloniellids, aglaspidids, bivalved arthropods, megacheirans, cnidarians, brachiopods, molluscs, conodonts, and coprolites, representing the first Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätte discovered in the North China craton. Its unique environment (carbonate contourites) and distinctive biological features (diverse fauna with the absence of typical Ordovician taxa, such as trilobites and graptolites) enrich our understanding of the biological assemblages and ecological niches of the Ordovician deep-water ecosystems. The discovery of the Fuping Fauna not only expands the distribution range and sedimentary environment of the Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten but also indicates that the deep-water fauna exhibited high ecological complexity and biodiversity in the prime of the GOBE.