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SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating was carried out for the Daohugou Biota near Ningcheng of Inner Mongolia and for lavas overlying or underlying salamander-bearing strata at Reshuitang in Lingyuan of West Liaoning. The results suggest that the Daohugou Biota occurred at an interval from 168 Ma to 164 – 152 Ma. Both the Daohugou Biota and the salamander-bearing fossil assemblage are the same biota and thus developed from 168 to 152 Ma, i.e. from late Middle Jurassic to the early Late Jurassic. The Daohugou Biota-bearing rocks, resting on the Jiulongshan Formation in disconformity and being overlain in unconformity by Late Jurassic Tuchengzi Formation and Early Cretaceous rocks containing the Jehol Biota, are mainly composed of volcanic-sedimentary rocks in a normal sequence. It is recommended that the Daohugou Biota and the related stratigraphy should be correlated with the Tiaojishan Formation (Lanqi Formation in West Liaoning) or its synchronous rocks. It is suggested that the Daohugou Biota and the Jehol Biota would be neither taken into one biota nor considered as the earliest elements of the Jehol Biota. The Daohugou Biota and the related rocks and the Yixian Formation were respectively formed in different periods of volcanic-sedimentary tectonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkali-feldspar syenites from the Maomaogou area of Huili County in Panxi of Sichuan Province, SW China are sodium alkaline rocks, the minerals of which are mainly composed of calcic ferroaugite, ferroamphibole and biotite. Most of the zircons (>80%) selected for SHRIMP U-Pb dating are magmatic compound zircons and they have relict inner cores and growing outer shells. The age of zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating is 224±8 Ma, suggesting that the Maomaogou alkali-feldspar syenite was formed in the late Triassic period. At the same time, two old age periods of relict cores of zircon are determined, they are the Archean age (2692–2818 Ma) and Neoproterozoic age (622–691 Ma), respectively. These periods indicate that the cores derived from the crystal basement. Furthermore, the Archean age of zircon provides the first reliable SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating evidence of >2.8 Ga basement in the Xikang-Yunnan Axis of southwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]