Data from: Diachronous increase in early Cambrian ichnofossil size and benthic faunal activity in different climatic regions

In order to clarify the pattern of diversification and processes of biological activity during the Cambrian radiation, ichnofossils were comparatively studied in the early Cambrian sections of Newfoundland, South China and western Mongolia. Special attention was paid to size distributions of the most common ichnogenus, Planolites, and the densities of all the observed ichnofossils that preserve animal activity as expressed by bedding plane bioturbation indices (BPBI). From the Fortune Head section in Newfoundland, a clear size increase in the ichnogenus Planolites is confirmed from the Treptichnus pedum Zone to the overlying Rusophycus avalonensis Zone. The BPBI also shows much stronger biological activity in the R. avalonensis Zone than in the T. pedum Zone. In Meishucun, South China and Gobi-Altai, Mongolia, however, a variety of Planolites sizes had already appeared in the T. pedum Zone, and the BPBI's on some bedding surfaces of the T. pedum Zone are already comparable to those in the R. avalonensis Zone in Newfoundland. In the earliest Cambrian, diversification and increase in the biological activity of the benthic fauna were diachronous in the wide geographic scale, starting earlier at lower latitudes (South China and western Mongolia) than at higher latitudes (Newfoundland), reflecting differences in the onset of Cambrian benthic animal activity under different climatic conditions

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SUPPLEMENTAL DATA 2—Columnar section of the Rusophycus avalonensis Zone of the Chapel Island Formation in Fortune Head, Newfoundland

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S2. Synsedimentary folding in the unit 15 near Arenicolites horizons, showing a ductile deformation of beds. This deformation also shows that the limestone beds were soft after deposition, allowing penetration of benthic organisms into the sediments

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S1. Correlation of Arenicolites horizons and ratio of dolomite/calcite of the carbonate beds analyzed by XRD analysis. Note that most of the Arenicolites horizons are located in the limestone, not in heavily dolomitized parts

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SUPPLEMENTAL DATA 1—Columnar section of the Treptichnus pedum Zone of the Chapel Island Formation in Fortune Head, Newfoundland

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SUPPLEMENTAL DATA 3—Columnar section of the uppermost Dengying and Zhujiaqing formations in Meishucun, Yunnan

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S3. Bottom of a bed at 171.24 meters with Arenicolites

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SUPPLEMENTAL DATA 4—Columnar section of the Tsagaan Oloom and Bayan Gol formations in Bayan Gol gorge, Gobi-Altai