The Ordos Basin, as the second largest petroliferous basin of China, contains abundant oil and gas resources, oil shale, and sandstone-type uranium mineral resources. Chang 7 shale is not only the major source rock of the Mesozoic petroliferous system of the Basin, but is also crucial in determining the space-time distribution relationship of the shale section for the effective exploration and development of the Basin’s oil and gas resources. To obtain a highly precise age of the shale development section, we collected tuff samples from the top and bottom profile of the Chang 7 Member, Yishi Village, Yaoqu Town, Tongchuan District, on the southern margin of the Ordos Basin and performed high-precision chemical abrasion (CA)–isotope dilution (ID)–thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) zircon U-Pb dating on the basis of extensive laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) zircon U-Pb dating data. Our results show the precise ages of the top and bottom zircon in the Chang 7 shale to be 241.06±0.12 Ma and 241.558±0.093 Ma, respectively. We first obtained Chang 7 age data with Grade 0.1-Ma precision and then determined the age of the shale development in the Chang 7 Member to be the early-Middle Triassic Ladinian. This result is supported by paleontological evidence. The deposition duration of the Chang 7 shale is 0.5Ma with an average deposition rate of the shale section being 5.3 cm/ka. Our research results provide time scale and basic data for further investigation of the basin–mountain coupling relation of the shale section, the sedimentary environment and volcanic ash and organic-matter-rich shale development relation, and the organism break-out and organic-matter enrichment mechanism.