Late Jurassic Epiphyton-like cyanobacteria: Indicators of long-term episodic variation in marine bioinduced microbial calcification?

Săsăran, Emanoil; Bucur, Ioan I.; Pleș, George; Riding, Robert

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.02.026

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Weissert & Channell, 1989), despite global changes in calcareous phytoplankton production. Some estimates place the rate of extinction in calcareous nannoplankton at the J/K boundary at five times higher than that of background rates (Roth, 1989;Bown, Lees & Young, 2004), whereas the middle-late Tithonian saw significant radiations in both coccolithophores and nannoliths (Erba, 2006), with enhanced rates of speciation (Bown et al, 2004;Sȃsȃran et al, 2014) and extinction occurring in both groups at the J/K boundary. It is possible that these events are related to the Early Cretaceous diversification of diatoms and grasses (Falkowski et al, 2004).…”

Section: (C) Planktonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic and environmental dynamics through theLateJurassic–EarlyCretaceous transition: evidence for protracted faunal and ecological turnover

et al. 2016

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The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous interval represents a time of environmental upheaval and cataclysmic events, combined with disruptions to terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Historically, the Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary was classified as one of eight mass extinctions. However, more recent research has largely overturned this view, revealing a much more complex pattern of biotic and abiotic dynamics than has previously been appreciated. Here, we present a synthesis of our current knowledge of Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous events, focusing particularly on events closest to the J/K boundary. We find evidence for a combination of short-term catastrophic events, large-scale tectonic processes and environmental perturbations, and major clade interactions that led to a seemingly dramatic faunal and ecological turnover in both the marine and terrestrial realms. This is coupled with a great reduction in global biodiversity which might in part be explained by poor sampling. Very few groups appear to have been entirely resilient to this J/K boundary 'event', which hints at a 'cascade model' of ecosystem changes driving faunal dynamics. Within terrestrial ecosystems, larger, more-specialised organisms, such as saurischian dinosaurs, appear to have suffered the most. Medium-sized tetanuran theropods declined, and were replaced by larger-bodied groups, and basal eusauropods were replaced by neosauropod faunas. The ascent of paravian theropods is emphasised by escalated competition with contemporary pterosaur groups, culminating in the explosive radiation of birds, although the timing of this is obfuscated by biases in sampling. Smaller, more ecologically diverse terrestrial non-archosaurs, such as lissamphibians and mammaliaforms, were comparatively resilient to extinctions, instead documenting the origination of many extant groups around the J/K boundary. In the marine realm, extinctions were focused on low-latitude, shallow marine shelf-dwelling faunas, corresponding to a significant eustatic sea-level fall in the latest Jurassic. More mobile and ecologically plastic marine groups, such as ichthyosaurs, survived the boundary relatively unscathed. High rates of extinction and turnover in other macropredaceous marine groups, including plesiosaurs, are accompanied by the origin of most major lineages of extant sharks. Groups which occupied both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, including crocodylomorphs, document a selective extinction in shallow marine forms, whereas turtles appear to have diversified. These patterns suggest that different extinction selectivity and ecological processes were operating between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, which were ultimately important in determining the fates of many key groups, as well as the origins of many major extant lineages. We identify a series of potential abiotic candidates for driving these patterns, including multiple bolide impacts, several episodes of flood basalt eruptions, dramatic climate change, and major disruptions to oceanic systems. The J/K t...

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Section: (C) Planktonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic and environmental dynamics through theLateJurassic–EarlyCretaceous transition: evidence for protracted faunal and ecological turnover

et al. 2016

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“…Along with a difference in cell size and tendency to form tangled filaments, Vaucheria displays platy microsparite crystals on its cell wall (Freytet & Verrecchia, 1998), distinguishing it from the monocrystal nature of Oocardium. While the comparisons made in Figure 7 contain a notable diameter size difference between Epiphyton and Oocardium, Epiphyton thalli diameters have been shown to be highly variable (Woo & Chough, 2010) and some are within the size range (~20 μm) reported here for Oocardium (e.g., Riding & Soja, 1993;Sǎsǎran, Bucur, Pleş, & Riding, 2014). If the bifurcating tubes were formed through a similar mechanism of binary cell division, then individual Epiphyton cell size would have been highly variable too, given the observed variability in Epiphyton thalli F I G U R E 6 Diagenetic model of Oocardium calcite.…”

Section: Oocardium-epiphyton Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

A freshwater analog for the production of Epiphyton‐like microfossils

Ibarra

Sanon

2019

Geobiology

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Calcified microbial microfossils—often interpreted as cyanobacteria—were important components of Precambrian and Paleozoic limestones, but their paucity in modern marine environments complicates our ability to make conclusive interpretations about their taxonomic affinity and geologic significance. Freshwater spring‐associated limestones (e.g., travertine and tufa) serve as terrestrial analogs to investigate mineralization in and around aquatic biofilms on observable timescales. We document the diagenesis of calcite fabrics associated with the freshwater algae Oocardium stratum, an epiphytic colonial green algae (desmid) known for producing stalks of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and passively producing a bifurcating tubular calcite monocrystal. Bifurcating EPS stalks produced by Oocardium colonies can become calcified and preserved in ancient carbonate deposits. Calcified micritic EPS stalks have a filamentous morphology, show evidence of branching, and maintain uniformity in diameter thickness throughout the mm‐scale colony, much like the enigmatic calcimicrobe Epiphyton. We provide a mechanism by which calcification associated with a colonial semispherical micro‐organism produces microfossils that deceptively resemble filamentous forms. These findings have implications for the use of morphological traits when assigning taxonomic affinities to extinct microfossil groups and highlight the utility of calcifying freshwater modern environments to investigate microbial taphonomy.

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“…Microproblematica Family Epiphytaceae Korde, 1959 Discussion. -Epiphytaceans are small, heavily calcified, dendritic fossils that are common in Cambrian lime stones but also occur sporadically in younger strata (Rid ing 1979(Rid ing , 1991Riding & Voronova 1982;Săsăran et al 2014;Liu et al 2016). Riding (1991) noted that epiphytaceans have been considered to be chlorophytes, rhodophytes or cyanobacteria, although he favoured the latter.…”

Section: Systematic Palaeontologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Luchinina (1995, p. 12) placed them within a group Calciobionta, "an independent subdivision of fossil algae with no modern analogues", but Luchinina & Terleev (2008, 2014 assigned Epiphyton Bornemann, 1886 to the rhodophytes (red algae). In reviewing their distribution from Cambrian to Cretaceous, Săsăran et al (2014) concluded that epiphytaceans were likely cyanobacteria but probably a heterogeneous group. Liu et al (2016) considered Epiphyton to Microproblematica and this view is followed here.…”

Section: Systematic Palaeontologymentioning

confidence: 99%

An epiphytacean-Girvanella (Cyanobacteria) symbiosis from the Cambrian (Series 3, Drumian) of North Greenland (Laurentia)

Peel¹

2018

Bull. Geosci.

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The widespread Cambrian calcareous cyanobacterium Girvanella is described in symbiotic association with a new epiphytacean, Orpikania freucheni gen. et sp. nov. (Microproblematica), from the Ekspedition Brae Formation (Cambrian Series 3, Drumian Stage) of Freuchen Land, North Greenland. The phosphatized assemblages preserve dendrites of the epiphytacean forming a supporting framework for discrete climbing filaments of Girvanella lianiformis sp. nov. that are firmly attached to their host with holdfasts. Elevation of the slender Girvanella filaments on the framework of the dendrite potentially enhanced their phototactic movement towards the light. Filaments in the cooccurring Girvanella pituutaq sp. nov. are regularly twisted together into a ropelike form which may have assisted elevation above its substrate. •

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Late Jurassic Epiphyton-like cyanobacteria: Indicators of long-term episodic variation in marine bioinduced microbial calcification?

Cited by 22 publications

References 30 publications

Biotic and environmental dynamics through theLateJurassic–EarlyCretaceous transition: evidence for protracted faunal and ecological turnover

Biotic and environmental dynamics through theLateJurassic–EarlyCretaceous transition: evidence for protracted faunal and ecological turnover

A freshwater analog for the production of Epiphyton‐like microfossils

An epiphytacean-Girvanella (Cyanobacteria) symbiosis from the Cambrian (Series 3, Drumian) of North Greenland (Laurentia)

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