FLYNN, LAWRENCE JOHN, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY; ZHANXIANG QIU, IVPP, Academia Sinica, Beijing, PRC; NEIL D. OPDYKE, Department of Geology, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL; and RICHARD H. TEDFORD, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

ABSTRACT: Paleomagnetic Ages for Key Fossil Assemblages in the Late Neogene Terestrial Record of Northern China

Terrestrial sediments and fossils are widespread in the Neogene of northeastern Asia, yet correlation of characteristic vertebrate assemblages to the geochronologic time scale is poorly constrained. Recent work in Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, northern China, has helped to characterize the faunal succession there for the last six million years. Megnetostratigraphy

of the Yushe fluvial and lacustrine sequence has provided dates for late Miocene through Pliocene faunas, and a standard for age determination ofclassic vertebrate fossil localities via faunal correlation. This permits more accurate age assignments for basin fill in isolated areas that produce fossils. Classic Baode localities are late, but not latest Miocene; Ertemte, Inner Mongolia, is close in age to the Miocene/Pliocene boundary, ca. 5 Ma; younger than previously thought; Jingle and Youhe, Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces, are late Pliocene in age, also younger than previously thought. Few faunas from northeastern Asia are known to represent early Pliocene timeother than the upper Gaozhuang Formation of Yushe Basin, which can be used to characterize this time. The Vushe Haiyan fauna, laced in the lower part of the Matuyama magnetic chron, is pre-Pleistocene and correlates with the Nihewan Shagou fauna of Hebei Province.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90987©1993 AAPG Annual Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 25-28, 1993.