First High‐Precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS Age of the Chuanlinggou Formation, North China Craton: Implications for Global Correlations of Black Shales and the Statherian/Calymmian Boundary

Abstract The Chuanlinggou Formation in the northern North China preserves the world's earliest multicellular eukaryote microfossils. Here we present a high‐precision zircon U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS age of 1,641.7 ± 1.2 Ma for a tuff layer within the black shales of the Chuanlinggou Formation. The new age is similar to those obtained for black shales from the Cuizhuang Formation in the southern North China, and the Barney Creek and Fraynes formations in the North Australia, indicating synchronous deposition of large volumes of black shales across both the North China and North Australia at ca. 1640 Ma. Global correlations and analysis of the spatial distribution of ca. 1640 Ma black shales and large igneous provinces (LIPs) and associated magmatic rocks in paleogeographic reconstruction reveal a spatiotemporal link between the ca. 1640 Ma LIPs and black shales. The widely distributed ca. 1640 Ma LIPs and black shales in Columbia supercontinent can provide a natural marker for the Statherian/Calymmian boundary at 1,640 Ma.