The 40Ar/39Ar dating of the early Jehol Biota from Fengning, Hebei Province, northern China

Abstract

The bird fossil-bearing deposits at the Jiecaigou section, correlative to the Dabeigou Formation, in Fengning, Hebei Province, northern China, is well known for yielding a fossil assemblage representing the earliest evolutionary stage of the Jehol Biota. The precise age of the fossil-bearing deposits, however, is unknown. The 40Ar/39Ar age spectrum obtained on bulk K-feldspars from the tuff layer about 2 m below the bird fossil-bearing layer gave a plateau age of 129.0 ±1.3 Ma (2