Discovery of the Silurian chitinozoan fauna in the Mazha area, southern Yecheng, West Kunlun.

The West Kunlun region is situated in a high-altitude cold, oxygen-deficient zone in the interior of Central Asia, where the level of geological research is relatively low. The determination of the stratigraphic age of the Lower Silurian low-grade metamorphic clastic rocks was mainly based on trilobites, corals and cephalopods, but no evidence of microfossils has been found. Recently abundant Silurian chitinozoan fossils of the genera Desmochitina,Sphaerochitina,Rhabdochitina and Conochitinas have been found during geological survey in the Wengquangou area, West Kunlun. This supplies the determination of the age of the Lower Silurian clastic rocks, geological survey in the West Kunlun region, stratigraphic division and correlation of the Silurian and research on the geological evolution in the West Kunlun region with important evidence of microfossil fossils.