Table 1.

Summary of the six palaeogeographic provinces considered in this study with inferred palaeolatitude, degree of restriction, associated biota and dominant redox environment during biotic colonisation

Province	Approximate palaeolatitude (Li et al., 2013)	Environment and connectivity to global ocean	Key biota	Dominant redox environment of habitation
Yangtze Block (South China)	635 Ma: 30–60°N 580 Ma: ~0°N 540 Ma: 0–30°N	Variable connectivity; semi‐restricted intrashelf basins and unrestricted slope‐basin environment. Deep siliciclastic facies within intracontinental basins (e.g., Yangtze Gorges), shallow carbonate facies of elevated margins, and deep siliciclastic facies of the open slope to basin	Early Cambrian Metazoa: articulated sponges, arthropods, motile bilaterian trace‐makers, small shelly fossils (SSFs) and stem lophotrochozoans	Anoxic ferruginous, euxinic and impersistent oxia nearing 520 Ma
			Tubular soft‐bodied and biomineralising metazoans including Conotubus, Cloudina, Sinotubulites, and Wutubus. Ediacara‐type fossils including Yangtziramulus, Pteridinium, Rangea, and Charniodiscus (Dengying Formation)	Anoxic ferruginous, dysoxic to oxic (inferred from Ce/Ce* data). Impersistent euxinia of equivalent deep Liuchapo Formation
			Doushantuo member IV: Miaohe biota: includes the probable metazoan Eoandromeda	Ferruginous
			Doushantuo phosphatised animal embryos and acritarchs Lantian biota: Algae and possible Cnidaria	Ferruginous with euxinia of the open deep slope to basin
Laurentia (North America)	580 Ma: 30–75°S 540 Ma: 10–50°S	Siliciclastic lower slope to basin, shallowing up‐section to mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic. Freely connected rifting to passive margin, equatorial coast of Laurentia	Complex multicellular eukaryotes	Anoxic ferruginous, minor oxic intervals
Kalahari Craton (Namibia)	540 Ma: 30–60°S	Mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic foreland basin fully connected to Brazilides ocean. Two sub‐basins shelf to basin	Soft‐bodied multicellular eukaryotes and biomineralising metazoans, Cloudina reefs	Variably anoxic ferruginous, manganous and oxic. Progressive oxygenation?
West Avalonia (Newfoundland)	580 Ma: 30–45°S 540 Ma: 45–60°S	Unrestricted lower slope to basin. Dominantly siliciclastic facies	Complex multicellular eukaryotes	Oxic
East European Platform	580 Ma: ~30°S 540 Ma: 30–60°S	Unrestricted lower slope inferred from drill core. Yskemes‐Vapol’: carbonate dominated. Vychegda‐Kotlin: siliciclastic dominated	Complex multicellular eukaryotes, motile bilaterian metazoans, biomineralising metazoans	Oxic (inferred‐ no direct fossil occurrence in drill core section)
Rio de la Plata Craton (Uruguay)	540 Ma: ~60°S	Unrestricted shelf to slope, openly connected to Brazilides Ocean. Mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic	Biomineralising metazoans (Cloudina) and acritarchs	Inferred oxic