Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) shallow water hydrocarbon seeps from Snow Hill and Seymour Islands, James Ross Basin, Antarctica

Little, Crispin T. S.; Birgel, Daniel; Boyce, Adrian J.; Crame, J. Alistair; Francis, Jane E.; Kiel, Steffen; Peckmann, Jörn; Pirrie, Duncan; Rollinson, Gavyn; Witts, James D.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.11.020

Cited by 45 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…The ammonites have δ 13 C values lower than the other taxa, with the baculites intermediate between the scaphites and sphenodiscids, suggesting differences in diet and/or position within the water column. Tobin and Ward (39) also documented lower average δ 13 C values in Late Cretaceous ammonites relative to benthic mollusks; however, these differences may be due to methane-derived carbon incorporated into the shells (40). The warm temperature recorded by the sphenodiscids, combined with low δ 13 C, supports the notion that these organisms generally lived close to shore; if they lived in the surface waters of the study site, they would have been exposed to a higher δ 13 C DIC , as indicated by the planktonic foraminifera δ 13 C. Thus, the marked δ 13 C differences between sphenodiscids and planktonic foraminifera reinforce the conclusion of offshore postmortem transport of sphenodiscids based on taphonomic observations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms

Sessa

Larina

Knoll

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Ammonites are among the best-known fossils of the Phanerozoic, yet their habitat is poorly understood. Three common ammonite families (Baculitidae, Scaphitidae, and Sphenodiscidae) co-occur with wellpreserved planktonic and benthic organisms at the type locality of the upper Maastrichtian Owl Creek Formation, offering an excellent opportunity to constrain their depth habitats through isotopic comparisons among taxa. Based on sedimentary evidence and the micro-and macrofauna at this site, we infer that the 9-m-thick sequence was deposited at a paleodepth of 70-150 m. Taxa present throughout the sequence include a diverse assemblage of ammonites, bivalves, and gastropods, abundant benthic foraminifera, and rare planktonic foraminifera. No stratigraphic trends are observed in the isotopic data of any taxon, and thus all of the data from each taxon are considered as replicates. Oxygen isotope-based temperature estimates from the baculites and scaphites overlap with those of the benthos and are distinct from those of the plankton. In contrast, sphenodiscid temperature estimates span a range that includes estimates of the planktonic foraminifera and of the warmer half of the benthic values. These results suggest baculites and scaphites lived close to the seafloor, whereas sphenodiscids sometimes inhabited the upper water column and/or lived closer to shore. In fact, the rarity and poorer preservation of the sphenodiscids relative to the baculites and scaphites suggests that the sphenodiscid shells may have only reached the Owl Creek locality by drifting seaward after death.A mmonites have constituted a primary data source for the fields of evolution, paleoceanography, biostratigraphy, and paleoecology for more than a century; their ubiquity, diversity, occurrence in a wide variety of marine environments, and readily preservable shell account for their utility in both paleontological and geological studies. Ammonites have been used extensively in studies of heterochrony because their shells preserve distinct ontogenetic changes that can be tracked in evolving lineages (1, 2); they are valued in paleoceanographic research because, like most mollusks, they are inferred to have precipitated their aragonitic shells in isotopic equilibrium with the surrounding seawater (3, 4). Thus, shell chemistry may record temperature, via oxygen isotopes (δ 18 O) (5), and water mass properties, such as strontium isotopes ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), which are used to estimate numerical age (6). Ammonites are also a textbook example of an index fossil; besides being abundant and widespread, they evolved rapidly, making them the dominant Mesozoic tool for relative dating and correlation of shallow water strata. For example, the 35-My-long stratigraphic record of Upper Cretaceous deposits in the US Western Interior Seaway (WIS) has been partitioned into 66 ammonite zones (7). Finally, ammonites underwent a spectacular extinction at the close of the Mesozoic. Explanations for why the ammonites, which were flourishing immediately before the Cretaceous-P...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms

Sessa

Larina

Knoll

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Besides an abundant and diverse molluscan fauna, other common faunal elements found throughout the Maastrichtian portion of the López de Bertodano Formation include serpulid worm tubes ( Rotularia ), cidaroid echinoid spines, scaphopods, rare solitary corals, decapod crustaceans, marine reptiles, shark vertebrae and fossil wood bored by Teredolites 26 27 33 . Recent work has also revealed the presence of fossil methane seeps, which are periodically developed on the Maastrichtian sea-floor and are characterized by a distinctive benthic molluscan fauna 34 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macrofossil evidence for a rapid and severe Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction in Antarctica

et al. 2016

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Debate continues about the nature of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinction event. An abrupt crisis triggered by a bolide impact contrasts with ideas of a more gradual extinction involving flood volcanism or climatic changes. Evidence from high latitudes has also been used to suggest that the severity of the extinction decreased from low latitudes towards the poles. Here we present a record of the K–Pg extinction based on extensive assemblages of marine macrofossils (primarily new data from benthic molluscs) from a highly expanded Cretaceous–Paleogene succession: the López de Bertodano Formation of Seymour Island, Antarctica. We show that the extinction was rapid and severe in Antarctica, with no significant biotic decline during the latest Cretaceous, contrary to previous studies. These data are consistent with a catastrophic driver for the extinction, such as bolide impact, rather than a significant contribution from Deccan Traps volcanism during the late Maastrichtian.

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“…This indicates that the Amma Fatma seep fauna contains mostly elements of normal marine background faunas, and lacks specialized obligate taxa, possibly apart from the lucinid, which might belong to the seep obligate genus Nymphalucina (Kiel, ), although is also similar to the lucind figured in El Qot (, plate 14, figs 7 to 10) as Lucina fallax Forbes, 1846 from the Late Cenomanian of Egypt. This paucity of obligate seep taxa is a common feature of shallow water seep faunas in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (Kiel, ; Little et al ., ). Other examples include the slightly older Cenomanian Tropic Shale seep faunas from southern Utah, USA (Kiel et al ., ), which are dominated by mostly small specimens of the bivalve genera Inoceramus and Nymphalucina , the gastropod genus Drepanochilus , rarer examples of the neogastropod Paleopsephaea and Callianassa decapod claws.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Despite the occurrence of macrofossils in zone 4, the Amma Fatma body is poor in fossils compared to most Phanerozoic seep deposits, which are usually replete in shelly macrofauna (Campbell & Bottjer, ; Kiel & Peckmann, ; Little et al ., ). Most of the shells identified in thin sections are severely fragmented and were most likely transported to the site over some distance, indicating that most of these molluscs did not live at the seep.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Methane seepage in a Cretaceous greenhouse world recorded by an unusual carbonate deposit from the Tarfaya Basin, Morocco

Smrzka

Zwicker

Kolonic

et al. 2017

The Depositional Record

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During the Cretaceous major episodes of oceanic anoxic conditions triggered large scale deposition of marine black shales rich in organic carbon. Several oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) have been documented including the Cenomanian to Turonian OAE 2, which is among the best studied examples to date. This study reports on a large limestone body that occurs within a black shale succession exposed in a coastal section of the Tarfaya Basin, Morocco. The black shales were deposited in the aftermath of OAE 2 in a shallow continental sea. To decipher the mode and causes of carbonate formation in black shales, a combination of element geochemistry, palaeontology, thin section petrography, carbon and oxygen stable isotope geochemistry and lipid biomarkers are used. The 13 Cdepleted biphytanic diacids reveal that the carbonate deposit resulted, at least in part, from microbially mediated anaerobic oxidation of methane in the shallow subseafloor at a hydrocarbon seep. The lowest obtained d 13 C carbonate values of À23Á5& are not low enough to exclude other carbon sources than methane apart from admixed marine carbonate, indicating a potential contribution from in situ remineralization of organic matter contained in the black shales. Nannofossil and trace metal inventories of the black shales and the macrofaunal assemblage of the carbonate body reveal that environmental conditions became less reducing during the deposition of the background shales that enclose the carbonate body, but the palaeoenvironment was overall mostly characterized by high productivity and episodically euxinic bottom waters. This study reconstructs the evolution of a hydrocarbon seep that was situated within a shallow continental sea in the aftermath of OAE 2, and sheds light on how these environmental factors influenced carbonate formation and the ecology at the seep site.

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Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) shallow water hydrocarbon seeps from Snow Hill and Seymour Islands, James Ross Basin, Antarctica

Cited by 45 publications

References 106 publications

Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms

Ammonite habitat revealed via isotopic composition and comparisons with co-occurring benthic and planktonic organisms

Macrofossil evidence for a rapid and severe Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction in Antarctica

Methane seepage in a Cretaceous greenhouse world recorded by an unusual carbonate deposit from the Tarfaya Basin, Morocco

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