Fentou Biota: A Llandovery (Silurian) Shallow-Water Exceptionally Preserved Biota from Wuhan, Central China

An exceptionally preserved biota is described from the middle Telychian (Llandovery, Silurian) Fentou Formation of Wuhan, Central China, which preserves nontrilobite arthropods, cnidarians, echinoderms, sponges, fish, and algae as well as abundant shelly fossils and trace fossils in the Skolithos-Cruziana ichnofacies. This biota can be divided into two assemblages on the basis of the biological characteristics, fossil-bearing strata, and their sedimentary environments. Assemblage 1 comprises nonbiomineralized phyllocarids, Sphenothallus, conulariids, complete crinoids and stelleroids, and Burgess Shale-type sponges as well as some uncertain fossils in taxonomy and abundant marine shelly fossils. Assemblage 2 consists of numerous eurypterids, agnathans, chondrichthyes, and a few conulariids, algae, as well as shelly euryhaline fossils. Discoveries of the Fentou biota expand the temporospatial distribution and sedimentary environment of the exceptionally preserved Silurian biota and advances a deeper understanding of the biological assemblage and ecological system in the Llandovery. It also provides new data for studying the biological recovery and radiation under the background of the littoral sea (assemblage 1) and estuary-delta (assemblage 2) environments after the latest Ordovician mass extinction.