Chengjiang

Chengjiang is a county-level division in Yunnan Province, southwest China. It is administered by Kunming, the provincial capital. The area is internationally recognized for the Chengjiang fossil site, located in the nearby Maotianshan shale deposits, which has yielded one of the most important concentrations of early Cambrian fossils.

The Chengjiang fossil site dates to about 518 million years ago, during the early Cambrian period. It preserves a wide array of soft-bodied organisms that are rarely fossilized, providing a more complete snapshot of ancient marine ecosystems than many other sites. The Chengjiang fauna includes a diverse range of organisms, such as arthropods, worms, sponges, and other early animals, which have informed our understanding of the rapid diversification that characterized the Cambrian explosion.

Discovery and study of the site began in the late 20th century, with initial work by Chinese paleontologists and subsequent international collaboration. Publications in the 1990s and 2000s highlighted the exceptional preservation and taxonomic variety of Chengjiang, making it a key reference point for studies of early animal life and Cambrian ecology. The site has contributed significantly to debates about the timing, tempo, and modes of early animal evolution.

Today, Chengjiang remains a major paleontological resource, continuing to inform theories about early metazoan life and the conditions that enabled soft-tissue preservation. The locality is frequently cited in scientific literature and serves as a focal point for education and research on the Cambrian period and the history of life on Earth.