combination of increase in abundance and size of metazoan fossils upsection, together with the low TOC and TS contents, is evidence that the Yudongzi PTBMs developed in oxic seawater. We thus dispute the previous view, at least for the Chinese sequences, of low-oxygen seawater for microbialite growth, and question whether it is now appropriate to associate PTBMs with anoxic, harsh environments associated with the end-Permian extinction. Instead, we interpret those conditions as fully oxygenated.
Bio-precursors of organic matter, referring to formerly living precursors, can influence content and distribution of organic pores significantly. However, insufficient attention has been paid in previous studies. To research the impact of bio-precursors of organic matter on shale organic pores, we conducted palynology and thin section analysis, total organic carbon analysis, and N 2 gas absorption experiments on the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations shales and kerogen samples from the Shuanghe outcrop section in southern Sichuan Basin, China. Generally, there are three bio-precursor assemblages being developed from bottom to top in the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formation, namely benthic algae, benthic-planktonic algae, and planktonic algae assemblages. Porosity in kerogen contributes greatly to shale porosity, accounting for 13 À 53% of total porosity. The total porosity and mesopore volume of samples (kerogen and shale) dominated by benthic algae are higher than those by planktonic algae. Pore size distributions of kerogen samples containing mainly benthic algae and planktonic algae are unimodal and multimodal type, respectively, when the pore diameter is larger than 5 nm. The different features between benthic and planktonic algae assemblages could be attributed to their different
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