The extent and complexity of problems posed by the record of the transition from the Proterozoic to the Phanerozoic require a multidisciplinary approach. A consortium is proposed, integrating individual missions of five principal investigators, together with extensive support from consultants and collaborators, into a combined geological-paleontological project, organized so as to bear upon the pattern, conditions and consequences of the great radiation of metazoans during that time. Major problems to be addressed include the fidelity of the geological and fossil record during the transition, the biostratigraphy and correlation of sections, the paleoenvironmental settings represented, the fossil associations and paleobiodistributions to be found, and the patterns of diversification of major metazoan clades. Methods include field work at key sections (including the US, Australia, China and the USSR); laboratory analyses of samples and specimens; compilation and evaluation of many stratigraphic sections; compilation and analysis of databases of photoautotrophs, of shelly invertebrates at the species level, and of the early radiations of all phyla, classes and orders, living and fossil; and computer modelling of the dynamics of the faunal radiations, turnovers and compositional changes found during the transition. Collaborators will provide expertise on paleogeographical, paleomagnetic, geochemical, ichnological, taphonomic, statistical and computer modelling, as well as on sedimentological and paleontological topics which lie beyond the competence of the principal investigators.
