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Possible biogenic structures from the Lower Cambrian strata in Yunnan Province, South China

Part of: From Snowball Earth to the Cambrian Explosion: Evidence from China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2017

WEI LIU  and
XINGLIANG ZHANG
WEI LIU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments (Northwest University), and Northwest University Museum, Xi'an 710069, PR China
XINGLIANG ZHANG*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments (Northwest University), and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, PR China
*
†Author for correspondence: xzhang69@nwu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS) are microbial traces in sandy deposits. They have been formed by various modes of microbial behaviour in response to the prevailing physical dynamics in shallow-marine environments since early Archaean time. An association of fossils, phosphatic structures and grains, stromatolites and microbial laminated levelling structures is documented from the Zhongyicun Member of Lower Cambrian strata in the Baideng section dated close to 535 Ma. SEM examination demonstrates that microbial laminated levelling structures are the result of the development of microbial mats composed of filamentous structures. We propose that there was a short hiatus after the dolomite layer deposited when the dolomite layer was weathered to form centimetre-scale valleys firstly, and then microbes accumulated in these valleys and formed the microbial laminated levelling structures.

Keywords

MISSphosphatic structures and grainsmicrobial laminated levelling structuresLower Cambrianeastern Yunnan area
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 154 , Issue 6: THEMATIC ISSUE: From Snowball Earth to the Cambrian Explosion: Evidence from China , November 2017 , pp. 1285 - 1293
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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