T346 The Co-Evolution of Life and Its Environment during the Precambrian: The Late Proterozoic Rise of Animals; Climate, Tectonic, and Environmental Dynamics, and the Transition into the Early Paleozoic

Wednesday, 25 October 2017
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Skagit 5

CONSTRAINING THE ROLE OF AN EDIACARAN BIOMINERALIZER USING A MULTISCALE METHODOLOGY

Paper number: T346-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:45 PM – 4:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Some of the earliest metazoans capable of biomineralization emerged during the Ediacaran Period (635 - 541 Ma). It has been suggested that one such biomineralizer, Cloudina, an abundant and globally distributed tubular organism, built structural frameworks and was a major component of microbial reef systems. This interpretation implies that metazoan reef building -- along with associated behaviors such as cooperative construction and environment modification -- emerged much earlier than previously thought.

We present an in-depth multiscale study of three fossil-bearing Ediacaran reef outcrops from Namibia and Canada. At each study area, we combine drone-assisted mapping, field observations, stratigraphic data, and three-dimensional reconstructions of Cloudina aggregates, produced using an automated serial grinding and imaging system in conjunction with a neural network image classification routine. We demonstrate that Cloudina was a minor component of microbial reef systems during the Ediacaran, that Cloudina aggregates likely are proximally sourced detritus, and that Cloudina had an easily deformable shell. On the basis of our reconstructions, we suggest that Cloudina may have had a life cycle analogous to present-day serpulid buildups.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-304971

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