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Sinha S, Muscente AD, Schiffbauer JD, Williams M, Schweigert G, Martindale RC. Global controls on phosphatization of fossils during the toarcian oceanic anoxic event. Sci Rep 2021; 11:24087. [PMID: 34916533 PMCID: PMC8677819 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03482-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Accepted: 11/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Konservat-Lagerstätten-deposits with exceptionally preserved fossils-vary in abundance across geographic and stratigraphic space due to paleoenvironmental heterogeneity. While oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) may have promoted preservation of marine lagerstätten, the environmental controls on their taphonomy remain unclear. Here, we provide new data on the mineralization of fossils in three Lower Jurassic Lagerstätten-Strawberry Bank (UK), Ya Ha Tinda (Canada), and Posidonia Shale (Germany) -and test the hypothesis that they were preserved under similar conditions. Biostratigraphy indicates that all three Lagerstätten were deposited during the Toarcian OAE (TOAE), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) show that each deposit contains a variety of taxa preserved as phosphatized skeletons and tissues. Thus, despite their geographic and paleoenvironmental differences, all of these Lagerstätten were deposited in settings conducive to phosphatization, indicating that the TOAE fostered exceptional preservation in marine settings around the world. Phosphatization may have been fueled by phosphate delivery from climatically-driven sea level change and continental weathering, with anoxic basins acting as phosphorus traps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sinjini Sinha
- Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2275 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
| | - A D Muscente
- Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2275 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.,Department of Geology, Cornell College, 600 First Street SW, Mount Vernon, Iowa, 52314, USA
| | - James D Schiffbauer
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, 101 Geological Sciences Building, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.,X-Ray Microanalysis Core Facility, University of Missouri, 1 Geological Sciences Building, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA
| | - Matt Williams
- Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, BA1 2HN, UK
| | - Günter Schweigert
- Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Rosenstein 1, 70191, Stuttgart, Germany
| | - Rowan C Martindale
- Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2275 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
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2
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Abstract
Bryozoans (also known as ectoprocts or moss animals) are aquatic, dominantly sessile, filter-feeding lophophorates that construct an organic or calcareous modular colonial (clonal) exoskeleton1–3. The presence of six major orders of bryozoans with advanced polymorphisms in lower Ordovician rocks strongly suggests a Cambrian origin for the largest and most diverse lophophorate phylum2,4–8. However, a lack of convincing bryozoan fossils from the Cambrian period has hampered resolution of the true origins and character assembly of the earliest members of the group. Here we interpret the millimetric, erect, bilaminate, secondarily phosphatized fossil Protomelission gatehousei9 from the early Cambrian of Australia and South China as a potential stem-group bryozoan. The monomorphic zooid capsules, modular construction, organic composition and simple linear budding growth geometry represent a mixture of organic Gymnolaemata and biomineralized Stenolaemata character traits, with phylogenetic analyses identifying P. gatehousei as a stem-group bryozoan. This aligns the origin of phylum Bryozoa with all other skeletonized phyla in Cambrian Age 3, pushing back its first occurrence by approximately 35 million years. It also reconciles the fossil record with molecular clock estimations of an early Cambrian origination and subsequent Ordovician radiation of Bryozoa following the acquisition of a carbonate skeleton10–13. Interpretation of the early Cambrian fossil Protomelission gatehousei9 as a potential stem-group bryozoan realigns the fossil record with molecular clock estimations of the origins of Bryozoa.
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3
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Janssen K, Mähler B, Rust J, Bierbaum G, McCoy VE. The complex role of microbial metabolic activity in fossilization. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 97:449-465. [PMID: 34649299 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Bacteria play an important role in the fossilization of soft tissues; their metabolic activities drive the destruction of the tissues and also strongly influence mineralization. Some environmental conditions, such as anoxia, cold temperatures, and high salinity, are considered widely to promote fossilization by modulating bacterial activity. However, bacteria are extremely diverse, and have developed metabolic adaptations to a wide range of stressful conditions. Therefore, the influence of the environment on bacterial activity, and of their metabolic activity on fossilization, is complex. A number of examples illustrate that simple, general assumptions about the role of bacteria in soft tissue fossilization cannot explain all preservational pathways: (i) experimental results show that soft tissues of cnidaria decay less in oxic than anoxic conditions, and in the fossil record are found more commonly in fossil sites deposited under oxic conditions rather than anoxic environments; (ii) siderite concretions, which often entomb soft tissue fossils, precipitate due to a complex mixture of sulfate- and iron reduction by some bacterial species, running counter to original theories that iron reduction is the primary driver of siderite concretion growth; (iii) arthropod brains, now widely accepted to be preserved in many Cambrian fossil sites, are one of the first structures to decay in taphonomic experiments, indicating that their fossilization processes are complex and influenced by bacterial activity. In order to expand our understanding of the complex process of bacterially driven soft tissue fossilization, more research needs to be done, on fossils themselves and in taphonomic experiments, to determine how the complex variation in microbial metabolic activity influences decay and mineralization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathrin Janssen
- Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Medical Faculty, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, 53127, Bonn, Germany
| | - Bastian Mähler
- Paleontology Section, Institute of Geosciences, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - Jes Rust
- Paleontology Section, Institute of Geosciences, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - Gabriele Bierbaum
- Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Medical Faculty, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, 53127, Bonn, Germany
| | - Victoria E McCoy
- Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53211, U.S.A
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4
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Yang B, Steiner M, Schiffbauer JD, Selly T, Wu X, Zhang C, Liu P. Ultrastructure of Ediacaran cloudinids suggests diverse taphonomic histories and affinities with non-biomineralized annelids. Sci Rep 2020; 10:535. [PMID: 31953458 PMCID: PMC6968996 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56317-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Cloudinids have long been considered the earliest biomineralizing metazoans, but their affinities have remained contentious and undetermined. Based on well-preserved ultrastructures of two taxa, we here propose new interpretations regarding both their extent of original biomineralization and their phylogenetic affinity. One of these taxa is a new cloudinid from Mongolia, Zuunia chimidtsereni gen. et sp. nov., which exhibits key characteristics of submicrometric kerogenous lamellae, plastic tube-wall deformation, and tube-wall delamination. Multiple carbonaceous lamellae are also discovered in Cloudina from Namibia and Paraguay, which we interpret to have originated from chitinous or collagenous fabrics. We deduce that these cloudinids were predominantly originally organic (chitinous or collagenous), and postmortem decay and taphonomic mineralization resulted in the formation of aragonite and/or calcite. Further, based on our ultrastructural characterization and other morphological similarities, we suggest that the cloudinids should most parsimoniously be assigned to annelids with originally organic tubes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben Yang
- Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China.
| | - Michael Steiner
- Department of Earth Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 12249, Germany.
| | - James D Schiffbauer
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA
- X-ray Microanalysis Core Facility, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA
| | - Tara Selly
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA
- X-ray Microanalysis Core Facility, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, 65211, USA
| | - Xuwen Wu
- Laboratory of Marine Organism Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China
| | - Cong Zhang
- Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China
- School of Earth Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China
| | - Pengju Liu
- Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China
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5
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Marx FG, Collareta A, Gioncada A, Post K, Lambert O, Bonaccorsi E, Urbina M, Bianucci G. How whales used to filter: exceptionally preserved baleen in a Miocene cetotheriid. J Anat 2017; 231:212-220. [PMID: 28542839 PMCID: PMC5522891 DOI: 10.1111/joa.12622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Baleen is a comb-like structure that enables mysticete whales to bulk feed on vast quantities of small prey, and ultimately allowed them to become the largest animals on Earth. Because baleen rarely fossilises, extremely little is known about its evolution, structure and function outside the living families. Here we describe, for the first time, the exceptionally preserved baleen apparatus of an entirely extinct mysticete morphotype: the Late Miocene cetotheriid, Piscobalaena nana, from the Pisco Formation of Peru. The baleen plates of P. nana are closely spaced and built around relatively dense, fine tubules, as in the enigmatic pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata. Phosphatisation of the intertubular horn, but not the tubules themselves, suggests in vivo intertubular calcification. The size of the rack matches the distribution of nutrient foramina on the palate, and implies the presence of an unusually large subrostral gap. Overall, the baleen morphology of Piscobalaena likely reflects the interacting effects of size, function and phylogeny, and reveals a previously unknown degree of complexity in modern mysticete feeding evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix G Marx
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.,Geosciences, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.,D.O. Terre et Histoire de la Vie, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Alberto Collareta
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.,Dottorato Regionale in Scienze della Terra Pegaso, Pisa, Italy
| | - Anna Gioncada
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Klaas Post
- Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Olivier Lambert
- D.O. Terre et Histoire de la Vie, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Elena Bonaccorsi
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Mario Urbina
- Departamento de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru
| | - Giovanni Bianucci
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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6
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Xiao S, Muscente AD, Chen L, Zhou C, Schiffbauer JD, Wood AD, Polys NF, Yuan X. The Weng'an biota and the Ediacaran radiation of multicellular eukaryotes. Natl Sci Rev 2014. [DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwu061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
The rise of multicellularity represents a major evolutionary transition and it occurred independently in multiple eukaryote clades. Although simple multicellular organisms may have evolved in the Mesoproterozoic Era or even earlier, complex multicellular eukaryotes began to diversify only in the Ediacaran Period, just before the Cambrian explosion. Thus, the Ediacaran fossil record can provide key paleontological evidence about the early radiation of multicellular eukaryotes that ultimately culminated in the Cambrian explosion. The Ediacaran Weng'an biota in South China hosts exceptionally preserved eukaryote fossils, including various acanthomorphic acritarchs, pseudoparenchymatous thalli, tubular microfossils, and spheroidal fossils such as Megasphaera, Helicoforamina, Spiralicellula, and Caveasphaera. Many of these fossils have been interpreted as multicellular eukaryotes, although alternative interpretations have also been proposed. In this review, we critically examine these various interpretations, focusing particularly on Megasphaera, which has been variously interpreted as a sulfur-oxidizing bacterium, a unicellular protist, a mesomycetozoean-like holozoan, a volvocine green alga, a stem-group animal, or a crown-group animal. We conclude that Megasphaera is a multicellular eukaryote with evidence for cell-to-cell adhesion, a flexible membrane unconstrained by a rigid cell wall, spatial cellular differentiation, germ–soma separation, and programmed cell death. These features are inconsistent with the bacterium, unicellular protist, and mesomycetozoean-like holozoan interpretations. Thus, the surviving hypotheses, particularly the stem-group animal and algal interpretations, should be further tested with additional evidence. The Weng'an biota also hosts cellularly differentiated pseudoparenchymatous thalli with specialized reproductive structures indicative of an affinity with florideophyte red algae. The other Weng'an fossils reviewed here may also be multicellular eukaryotes, although direct cellular evidence is lacking in some and phylogenetic affinities are poorly constrained in others. The Weng'an biota offers many research opportunities to resolve the life histories and phylogenetic diversity of early multicellular eukaryotes and to illuminate the evolutionary prelude to the Cambrian explosion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuhai Xiao
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
| | - A. D. Muscente
- Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
| | - Lei Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
- College of Earth Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Chuanming Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - James D. Schiffbauer
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
| | - Andrew D. Wood
- Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
| | - Nicholas F. Polys
- Advanced Research Computing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
| | - Xunlai Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
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