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Early Cambrian origin of the shelf sediment mixed layer.

ABSTRACT: The mixed layer of modern oceans is a zone of fully homogenized sediment resulting from bioturbation. The mixed layer is host to complex biogeochemical cycles that directly impact ecosystem functioning, affecting ocean productivity and marine biodiversity. The timing of origin of the mixed layer has been controversial, with estimates ranging from Cambrian to Silurian, hindering our understanding of biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem dynamics in deep time. Here we report evidence from the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the basal Cambrian in the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, showing that a well-developed mixed layer of similar structure to that of modern marine sediments was established in shallow marine settings by the early Cambrian (approximately 529 million years ago). These findings imply that the benthos significantly contributed to establishing new biogeochemical cycles during the Cambrian explosion.

SUBMITTER: Gougeon RC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5953921 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Early Cambrian origin of the shelf sediment mixed layer.

Gougeon Romain C RC Mángano M Gabriela MG Buatois Luis A LA Narbonne Guy M GM Laing Brittany A BA

Nature communications 20180515 1

The mixed layer of modern oceans is a zone of fully homogenized sediment resulting from bioturbation. The mixed layer is host to complex biogeochemical cycles that directly impact ecosystem functioning, affecting ocean productivity and marine biodiversity. The timing of origin of the mixed layer has been controversial, with estimates ranging from Cambrian to Silurian, hindering our understanding of biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem dynamics in deep time. Here we report evidence from the Globa ...[more]

PMID: 29765030

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Project description:BackgroundExtant cubozoans are voracious predators characterized by their square shape, four evenly spaced outstretched tentacles and well-developed eyes. A few cubozoan fossils are known from the Middle Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah and the well-known Carboniferous Mazon Creek Formation of Illinois. Undisputed cubozoan fossils were previously unknown from the early Cambrian; by that time probably all representatives of the living marine phyla, especially those of basal animals, should have evolved.MethodsMicroscopic fossils were recovered from a phosphatic limestone in the Lower Cambrian Kuanchuanpu Formation of South China using traditional acetic-acid maceration. Seven of the pre-hatched pentamerous cubozoan embryos, each of which bears five pairs of subumbrellar tentacle buds, were analyzed in detail through computed microtomography (Micro-CT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) without coating.ResultsThe figured microscopic fossils are unequivocal pre-hatching embryos based on their spherical fertilization envelope and the enclosed soft-tissue that has preserved key anatomical features arranged in perfect pentaradial symmetry, allowing detailed comparison with modern cnidarians, especially medusozoans. A combination of features, such as the claustrum, gonad-lamella, suspensorium and velarium suspended by the frenula, occur exclusively in the gastrovascular system of extant cubozoans, indicating a cubozoan affinity for these fossils. Additionally, the interior anatomy of these embryonic cubozoan fossils unprecedentedly exhibits the development of many new septum-derived lamellae and well-partitioned gastric pockets unknown in living cubozoans, implying that ancestral cubozoans had already evolved highly specialized structures displaying unexpected complexity at the dawn of the Cambrian. The well-developed endodermic lamellae and gastric pockets developed in the late embryonic stages of these cubozoan fossils are comparable with extant pelagic juvenile cubomedusae rather than sessile cubopolyps, whcih indicates a direct development in these fossil taxa, lacking characteristic stages of a typical cnidarian metagenesis such as planktonic planula and sessile polyps.

Dataset Information

Early Cambrian origin of the shelf sediment mixed layer.

Publications

Early Cambrian origin of the shelf sediment mixed layer.

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