Molar-tooth carbonate refers to a sort of rock that has ptygmatical folded structure comparable to the ivory. This kind of carbonate exists in a special time range (from Middle to Neoproterozoic). Its origin and the possibility to use it in stratigraphic correlation of the paleocontinent is the key task of the IGCP447, a project on Proterozoic molar tooth carbonates and the evolution of the earth (2001-2005). The importance lies in that the molar-tooth structure is the key to solving problems related to Precambrian biological and global geochemical events. The molar-tooth structure is associated with microorganisms. Development and recession of such carbonates have relations with the evolution process of early lives and abrupt changes in sea carbonate geochemistry. In recent years, based on researches on petrology, geochemistry and Sr isotope of molar-tooth carbonate in the Jilin-Liaoning and Xuzhou-Huaiyang area, the authors hold that it can be used as a marker for stratigraphic sequence and sedimentary fades analyses.
The middle Permian Cryptospirifer fauna （brachiopod） has hitherto been found in more than 30 localities in the Yangtze Platform, South China. Examination of data from various localities shows that it occurs stratigraphically in three intervals in the range from the upper Kungurian to Wordian. In the Baoshan block in western Yunnan the fauna occurs in the basal part of the Daaozi Formation and is of possibly an early Wordian age. Outside China the Cryptospirifer fauna has been reported from central and northwest Iran and central Turkey, where the fauna may have an age around the Wordian／Capitanian boundary. Rapid global warming since the late Early Permian and possession of other suitable environmental factors such as proper substrate, clastic input and water depth enabled the Gondwana-derived Baoshan Block and related tectono-stratigraphic units in Iran and Turkey to host the Cryptospirifer fauna, a fauna evolved in the Yangtze Platform that is a type area of the Cathaysian province.
