Small shelly fossils and carbon isotopes from the early Cambrian (Stage 3-4) Mural Formation of western Laurentia

The extraordinary window of phosphatised and phosphatic Small Shelly Fossils (SSFs) during the early and middle Cambrian is an important testament to the radiation of biomineralising metazoans. While SSF are well known from most Cambrian palaeocontinents during this time interval, western Laurentia has relatively few SSF faunas. Here we describe a diverse SSF fauna from the early Cambrian (Stage 3-4) Mural Formation at three localities in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, complemented by carbon isotope measurements at two of the recorded sites to aid in a potential future bio-chemostratigraphic framework.. The fauna expands the recorded SSF assemblage diversity in western Laurentia and includes several brachiopods, four bradoriids, three chancelloriids, two hyoliths, a tommotiid and a helcionellid mollusc as well as echinoderm ossicles and specimens of Microdictyon, Volborthella and Hyolithellus. New taxa include the tommotiid genus Canadiella gen. nov., the new bradoriid species Hi...