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Boag TH, Busch JF, Gooley JT, Strauss JV, Sperling EA. Deep-water first occurrences of Ediacara biota prior to the Shuram carbon isotope excursion in the Wernecke Mountains, Yukon, Canada. Geobiology 2024; 22:e12597. [PMID: 38700422 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Revised: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
Ediacara-type macrofossils appear as early as ~575 Ma in deep-water facies of the Drook Formation of the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, and the Nadaleen Formation of Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada. Our ability to assess whether a deep-water origination of the Ediacara biota is a genuine reflection of evolutionary succession, an artifact of an incomplete stratigraphic record, or a bathymetrically controlled biotope is limited by a lack of geochronological constraints and detailed shelf-to-slope transects of Ediacaran continental margins. The Ediacaran Rackla Group of the Wernecke Mountains, NW Canada, represents an ideal shelf-to-slope depositional system to understand the spatiotemporal and environmental context of Ediacara-type organisms' stratigraphic occurrence. New sedimentological and paleontological data presented herein from the Wernecke Mountains establish a stratigraphic framework relating shelfal strata in the Goz/Corn Creek area to lower slope deposits in the Nadaleen River area. We report new discoveries of numerous Aspidella hold-fast discs, indicative of frondose Ediacara organisms, from deep-water slope deposits of the Nadaleen Formation stratigraphically below the Shuram carbon isotope excursion (CIE) in the Nadaleen River area. Such fossils are notably absent in coeval shallow-water strata in the Goz/Corn Creek region despite appropriate facies for potential preservation. The presence of pre-Shuram CIE Ediacara-type fossils occurring only in deep-water facies within a basin that has equivalent well-preserved shallow-water facies provides the first stratigraphic paleobiological support for a deep-water origination of the Ediacara biota. In contrast, new occurrences of Ediacara-type fossils (including juvenile fronds, Beltanelliformis, Aspidella, annulated tubes, and multiple ichnotaxa) are found above the Shuram CIE in both deep- and shallow-water deposits of the Blueflower Formation. Given existing age constraints on the Shuram CIE, it appears that Ediacaran organisms may have originated in the deeper ocean and lived there for up to ~15 million years before migrating into shelfal environments in the terminal Ediacaran. This indicates unique ecophysiological constraints likely shaped the initial habitat preference and later environmental expansion of the Ediacara biota.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas H Boag
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - James F Busch
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Jared T Gooley
- Alaska Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
| | - Justin V Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
| | - Erik A Sperling
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
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Farrell ÚC, Samawi R, Anjanappa S, Klykov R, Adeboye OO, Agic H, Ahm AC, Boag TH, Bowyer F, Brocks JJ, Brunoir TN, Canfield DE, Chen X, Cheng M, Clarkson MO, Cole DB, Cordie DR, Crockford PW, Cui H, Dahl TW, Mouro LD, Dewing K, Dornbos SQ, Drabon N, Dumoulin JA, Emmings JF, Endriga CR, Fraser TA, Gaines RR, Gaschnig RM, Gibson TM, Gilleaudeau GJ, Gill BC, Goldberg K, Guilbaud R, Halverson GP, Hammarlund EU, Hantsoo KG, Henderson MA, Hodgskiss MS, Horner TJ, Husson JM, Johnson B, Kabanov P, Brenhin Keller C, Kimmig J, Kipp MA, Knoll AH, Kreitsmann T, Kunzmann M, Kurzweil F, LeRoy MA, Li C, Lipp AG, Loydell DK, Lu X, Macdonald FA, Magnall JM, Mänd K, Mehra A, Melchin MJ, Miller AJ, Mills NT, Mwinde CN, O'Connell B, Och LM, Ossa Ossa F, Pagès A, Paiste K, Partin CA, Peters SE, Petrov P, Playter TL, Plaza‐Torres S, Porter SM, Poulton SW, Pruss SB, Richoz S, Ritzer SR, Rooney AD, Sahoo SK, Schoepfer SD, Sclafani JA, Shen Y, Shorttle O, Slotznick SP, Smith EF, Spinks S, Stockey RG, Strauss JV, Stüeken EE, Tecklenburg S, Thomson D, Tosca NJ, Uhlein GJ, Vizcaíno MN, Wang H, White T, Wilby PR, Woltz CR, Wood RA, Xiang L, Yurchenko IA, Zhang T, Planavsky NJ, Lau KV, Johnston DT, Sperling EA. The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project. Geobiology 2021; 19:545-556. [PMID: 34219351 PMCID: PMC9291056 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 06/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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Trower EJ, Strauss JV, Sperling EA, Fischer WW. Isotopic analyses of Ordovician-Silurian siliceous skeletons indicate silica-depleted Paleozoic oceans. Geobiology 2021; 19:460-472. [PMID: 34002455 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The Phanerozoic Eon marked a major transition from marine silica deposition exclusively via abiotic pathways to a system dominated by biogenic silica sedimentation. For decades, prevailing ideas predicted this abiotic-to-biogenic transition were marked by a significant decrease in the concentration of dissolved silica in seawater; however, due to the lower perceived abundance and uptake affinity of sponges and radiolarians relative to diatoms, marine dissolved silica is thought to have remained elevated above modern values until the Cenozoic radiation of diatoms. Studies of modern marine silica biomineralizers demonstrated that the Si isotope ratios (δ30 Si) of sponge spicules and planktonic silica biominerals produced by diatoms or radiolarians can be applied as quantitative proxies for past seawater dissolved silica concentrations due to differences in Si isotope fractionations among these organisms. We undertook 446 ion microprobe analyses of δ30 Si and δ18 O of sponge spicules and radiolarians from Ordovician-Silurian chert deposits of the Mount Hare Formation in Yukon, Canada. These isotopic data showed that sponges living in marine slope and basinal environments displayed small Si isotope fractionations relative to coeval radiolarians. By constructing a mathematical model of the major fluxes and reservoirs in the marine silica cycle and the physiology of silica biomineralization, we found that the concentration of dissolved silica in seawater was less than ~150 μM during early Paleozoic time-a value that is significantly lower than previous estimates. We posit that the topology of the early Paleozoic marine silica cycle resembled that of modern oceans much more closely than previously assumed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth J Trower
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Justin V Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, NH, USA
| | - Erik A Sperling
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Woodward W Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Sperling EA, Melchin MJ, Fraser T, Stockey RG, Farrell UC, Bhajan L, Brunoir TN, Cole DB, Gill BC, Lenz A, Loydell DK, Malinowski J, Miller AJ, Plaza-Torres S, Bock B, Rooney AD, Tecklenburg SA, Vogel JM, Planavsky NJ, Strauss JV. A long-term record of early to mid-Paleozoic marine redox change. Sci Adv 2021; 7:7/28/eabf4382. [PMID: 34233874 PMCID: PMC8262801 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf4382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The extent to which Paleozoic oceans differed from Neoproterozoic oceans and the causal relationship between biological evolution and changing environmental conditions are heavily debated. Here, we report a nearly continuous record of seafloor redox change from the deep-water upper Cambrian to Middle Devonian Road River Group of Yukon, Canada. Bottom waters were largely anoxic in the Richardson trough during the entirety of Road River Group deposition, while independent evidence from iron speciation and Mo/U ratios show that the biogeochemical nature of anoxia changed through time. Both in Yukon and globally, Ordovician through Early Devonian anoxic waters were broadly ferruginous (nonsulfidic), with a transition toward more euxinic (sulfidic) conditions in the mid-Early Devonian (Pragian), coincident with the early diversification of vascular plants and disappearance of graptolites. This ~80-million-year interval of the Paleozoic characterized by widespread ferruginous bottom waters represents a persistence of Neoproterozoic-like marine redox conditions well into the Phanerozoic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik A Sperling
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Michael J Melchin
- Department of Earth Sciences, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | | | - Richard G Stockey
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Una C Farrell
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Geology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Liam Bhajan
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Tessa N Brunoir
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Devon B Cole
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Benjamin C Gill
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic University and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Alfred Lenz
- Department of Earth Sciences, Western University Canada, London, ON, Canada
| | - David K Loydell
- School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
| | | | - Austin J Miller
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Beatrice Bock
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Alan D Rooney
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | | | - Jacqueline M Vogel
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Noah J Planavsky
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Justin V Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
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Abstract
Microfossils, stromatolites, preserved lipids and biologically informative isotopic ratios provide a substantial record of bacterial diversity and biogeochemical cycles in Proterozoic (2500-541 Ma) oceans that can be interpreted, at least broadly, in terms of present-day organisms and metabolic processes. Archean (more than 2500 Ma) sedimentary rocks add at least a billion years to the recorded history of life, with sedimentological and biogeochemical evidence for life at 3500 Ma, and possibly earlier; phylogenetic and functional details, however, are limited. Geochemistry provides a major constraint on early evolution, indicating that the first bacteria were shaped by anoxic environments, with distinct patterns of major and micronutrient availability. Archean rocks appear to record the Earth's first iron age, with reduced Fe as the principal electron donor for photosynthesis, oxidized Fe the most abundant terminal electron acceptor for respiration, and Fe a key cofactor in proteins. With the permanent oxygenation of the atmosphere and surface ocean ca 2400 Ma, photic zone O2 limited the access of photosynthetic bacteria to electron donors other than water, while expanding the inventory of oxidants available for respiration and chemoautotrophy. Thus, halfway through Earth history, the microbial underpinnings of modern marine ecosystems began to take shape.This article is part of the themed issue 'The new bacteriology'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew H Knoll
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Kristin D Bergmann
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Justin V Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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Cohen PA, Strauss JV, Rooney AD, Sharma M, Tosca N. Controlled hydroxyapatite biomineralization in an ~810 million-year-old unicellular eukaryote. Sci Adv 2017; 3:e1700095. [PMID: 28782008 PMCID: PMC5489269 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2017] [Accepted: 06/01/2017] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Biomineralization marks one of the most significant evolutionary milestones among the Eukarya, but its roots in the fossil record remain obscure. We report crystallographic and geochemical evidence for controlled eukaryotic biomineralization in Neoproterozoic scale microfossils from the Fifteenmile Group of Yukon, Canada. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals that the microfossils are constructed of a hierarchically organized interwoven network of fibrous hydroxyapatite crystals each elongated along the [001] direction, indicating biological control over microstructural crystallization. New Re-Os geochronological data from organic-rich shale directly below the fossil-bearing limestone constrain their age to <810.7 ± 6.3 million years ago. Mineralogical and geochemical variations from these sedimentary rocks indicate that dynamic global marine redox conditions, enhanced by local restriction, may have led to an increase in dissolved phosphate in pore and bottom waters of the Fifteenmile basin and facilitated the necessary geochemical conditions for the advent of calcium phosphate biomineralization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Phoebe A. Cohen
- Geosciences Department, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA
| | - Justin V. Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Alan D. Rooney
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Mukul Sharma
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Nicholas Tosca
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK
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