The latter had formerly been taken as.mudcracks. in China, and said to be indicative of shallow-water deposition, but trilo- bites and other fossils support instead an open shelf setting, and the re-interpretation of the sy- neresis cracks is consistent with this (Ji, 1985). Cocks and Rong (1988) recorded a depauperate Foliomena brachiopod fauna from the same beds, which is also present in the correlative rocks in South China.