Fossilisation processes and our reading of animal antiquity.
Trends in ecology & evolution
Anderson, R. P., Woltz, C. R., Tosca, N. J., Porter, S. M., Briggs, D. E.
2023
Abstract
Estimates for animal antiquity exhibit a significant disconnect between those from molecular clocks, which indicate crown animals evolved ∼800 million years ago (Ma), and those from the fossil record, which extends only ∼574 Ma. Taphonomy is often held culpable: early animals were too small/soft/fragile to fossilise, or the circumstances that preserve them were uncommon in the early Neoproterozoic. We assess this idea by comparing Neoproterozoic fossilisation processes with those of the Cambrian and its abundant animal fossils. Cambrian Burgess Shale-type (BST) preservation captures animals in mudstones showing a narrow range of mineralogies; yet, fossiliferous Neoproterozoic mudstones rarely share the same mineralogy. Animal fossils are absent where BST preservation occurs in deposits ≥789 Ma, suggesting a soft maximum constraint on animal antiquity.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.014
View details for PubMedID 37385847
The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project.
Geobiology
Farrell, U. C., Samawi, R., Anjanappa, S., Klykov, R., Adeboye, O. O., Agic, H., Ahm, A. C., Boag, T. H., Bowyer, F., Brocks, J. J., Brunoir, T. N., Canfield, D. E., Chen, X., Cheng, M., Clarkson, M. O., Cole, D. B., Cordie, D. R., Crockford, P. W., Cui, H., Dahl, T. W., Mouro, L. D., Dewing, K., Dornbos, S. Q., Drabon, N., Dumoulin, J. A., Emmings, J. F., Endriga, C. R., Fraser, T. A., Gaines, R. R., Gaschnig, R. M., Gibson, T. M., Gilleaudeau, G. J., Gill, B. C., Goldberg, K., Guilbaud, R., Halverson, G. P., Hammarlund, E. U., Hantsoo, K. G., Henderson, M. A., Hodgskiss, M. S., Horner, T. J., Husson, J. M., Johnson, B., Kabanov, P., Brenhin Keller, C., Kimmig, J., Kipp, M. A., Knoll, A. H., Kreitsmann, T., Kunzmann, M., Kurzweil, F., LeRoy, M. A., Li, C., Lipp, A. G., Loydell, D. K., Lu, X., Macdonald, F. A., Magnall, J. M., Mand, K., Mehra, A., Melchin, M. J., Miller, A. J., Mills, N. T., Mwinde, C. N., O'Connell, B., Och, L. M., Ossa Ossa, F., Pages, A., Paiste, K., Partin, C. A., Peters, S. E., Petrov, P., Playter, T. L., Plaza-Torres, S., Porter, S. M., Poulton, S. W., Pruss, S. B., Richoz, S., Ritzer, S. R., Rooney, A. D., Sahoo, S. K., Schoepfer, S. D., Sclafani, J. A., Shen, Y., Shorttle, O., Slotznick, S. P., Smith, E. F., Spinks, S., Stockey, R. G., Strauss, J. V., Stueken, E. E., Tecklenburg, S., Thomson, D., Tosca, N. J., Uhlein, G. J., Vizcaino, M. N., Wang, H., White, T., Wilby, P. R., Woltz, C. R., Wood, R. A., Xiang, L., Yurchenko, I. A., Zhang, T., Planavsky, N. J., Lau, K. V., Johnston, D. T., Sperling, E. A.
2021
