6 results
Calcified metazoans in thrombolite-stromatolite reefs of the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group, Namibia
- John P. Grotzinger, Wesley A. Watters, Andrew H. Knoll
-
- Journal:
- Paleobiology / Volume 26 / Issue 3 / Summer 2000
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 February 2016, pp. 334-359
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Reefs containing abundant calcified metazoans occur at several stratigraphic levels within carbonate platforms of the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group, central and southern Namibia. The reef-bearing strata span an interval ranging from approximately 550 Ma to 543 Ma. The reefs are composed of thrombolites (clotted internal texture) and stromatolites (laminated internal texture) that form laterally continuous biostromes, isolated patch reefs, and isolated pinnacle reefs ranging in scale from a meter to several kilometers in width. Stromatolite-dominated reefs occur in depositionally updip positions within carbonate ramps, whereas thrombolite-dominated reefs occur broadly across the ramp profile and are well developed as pinnacle reefs in downdip positions.
The three-dimensional morphology of reef-associated fossils was reconstructed by computer, based on digitized images of sections taken at 25-micron intervals through 15 fossil specimens and additionally supported by observations of over 90 sets of serial sections. Most variation observed in outcrop can be accounted for by a single species of cm-scale, lightly calcified goblet-shaped fossils herein described as Namacalathus hermanastes gen. et sp. nov. These fossils are characterized by a hollow stem open at both ends attached to a broadly spheroidal cup marked by a circular opening with a downturned lip and six (or seven) side holes interpreted as diagenetic features of underlying biological structure. The goblets lived atop the rough topography created by ecologically complex microbial-algal carpets; they appear to have been sessile benthos attached either to the biohermal substrate or to soft-bodied macrobenthos such as seaweeds that grew on the reef surface. The phylogenetic affinities of Namacalathus are uncertain, although preserved morphology is consistent with a cnidarian-like bodyplan. In general aspect, these fossils resemble some of the unmineralized, radially symmetric taxa found in contemporaneous sandstones and shales, but do not appear to be closely related to the well-skeletonized bilaterian animals that radiated in younger oceans. Nama reefs demonstrate that biohermal associations of invertebrates and thrombolite-forming microorganisms antedate the Cambrian Period.
Digital reconstruction of calcified early metazoans, terminal Proterozoic Nama Group, Namibia
- Wesley A. Watters, John P. Grotzinger
-
- Journal:
- Paleobiology / Volume 27 / Issue 1 / Winter 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 February 2016, pp. 159-171
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
A method is presented for the digital reconstruction of weakly calcified fossils within the Nama Group, Namibia. These recently described fossils (Grotzinger et al. 2000) are preserved as calcitic void-fill in a calcite matrix, and individual specimens cannot be freed by conventional techniques. The technique presented here has several integrated steps: (1) the analysis of cross-sections of fossil specimens, (2) the construction of a three-dimensional “tomographic” model that is assembled from the cross-sections, (3) the development of an idealized mathematical model based upon geometric parameters measured from the tomographic model, and (4) the visualization of randomly oriented cross-sections through the mathematical model, which can be compared with fossil cross-sections in outcrop.
In this procedure, rocks containing the fossils are ground and digitally photographed at thickness intervals of 25 μm. A battery of image-processing techniques is used to obtain the contour outlines of the fossils in serial cross-sections. A Delaunay triangulation method is then used to reconstruct the morphology from tetrahedrons which connect the contours in adjacent layers. We found that most of the fossils represent a single morphology with some well-defined characters that vary slightly among individual specimens. This fossil morphology was described by Grotzinger et al. (2000) as Namacalathus hermanastes. A mathematical description of the morphology is used to obtain a database of randomly oriented synthetic cross-sections. This database reproduces the vast majority of cross-sections observed in outcrop.
The youngest Ediacaran fossils from Southern Africa
- Guy M. Narbonne, Beverly Z. Saylor, John P. Grotzinger
-
- Journal:
- Journal of Paleontology / Volume 71 / Issue 6 / November 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 14 July 2015, pp. 953-967
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Discovery of fossils of the Ediacara biota near the top of the Spitzkopf Member at farm Swartpunt extends the known range of these remains in Namibia more than 600 m to near the sub-Cambrian unconformity. The fossiliferous beds occur approximately 100 m above a volcanic ash dated at 543 ± 1 Ma, and thus may be the youngest Proterozoic Ediacara-type fossils reported anywhere in the world. Fossils are preserved within and on the tops of dm-thick beds of storm-deposited sandstone at two stratigraphic levels; the environment is interpreted as open marine, generally calm but with episodic disruptions by storm waves, and probably within the euphotic zone. The presence of Pteridinium carolinaense (St. Jean), which is also known from the classic sections in Ediacara and the White Sea among others, reinforces evidence from geochronology and chemostratigraphy that the Swartpunt section is terminal Neoproterozoic in age. The new genus and species Swartpuntia germsi is a large, multifoliate frond that exhibits at least three quilted petaloids. Macroscopically, Swartpuntia resembles Pteridinium and Ediacara-type fronds such as Charniodiscus traditionally interpreted as Cnidaria, whereas microscopically it exhibits segmentation that is remarkably similar to that of the putative worm Dickinsonia. Combination of diagnostic characters of these supposedly disparate groups in a single species suggests that many species of quilted Ediacaran organisms were more similar to each other than they were to any modern groups, and provides support for the concept of the “Vendobionta” as a late Neoproterozoic group of mainly multifoliate organisms with a distinctive quilted segmentation.
Integrated chronostratigraphy of Proterozoic–Cambrian boundary beds in the western Anabar region, northern Siberia
- Alan J. Kaufman, Andrew H. Knoll, Mikhail A. Semikhatov, John P. Grotzinger, Stein B. Jacobsen, William Adams
-
- Journal:
- Geological Magazine / Volume 133 / Issue 5 / September 1996
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 May 2009, pp. 509-533
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks of the western Anabar region, northern Siberia, preserve an exceptional record of evolutionary and biogeochemical events near the Proterozoic/Cambrian boundary. Sedimentologically, the boundary succession can be divided into three sequences representing successive episodes of late transgressive to early highstand deposition; four parasequences are recognized in the sequence corresponding lithostratigraphically to the Manykai Formation. Small shelly fossils are abundant and include many taxa that also occur in standard sections of southeastern Siberia. Despite this coincidence of faunal elements, biostratigraphic correlations between the two regions have been controversial because numerous species that first appear at or immediately above the basal Tommotian boundary in southeastern sections have first appearances scattered through more than thirty metres of section in the western Anabar. Carbon- and Sr-isotopic data on petrographically and geochemically screened samples collected at one- to two-metre intervals in a section along the Kotuikan River, favour correlation of the Staraya Reckha Formation and most of the overlying Manykai Formation with sub-Tommotian carbonates in southeastern Siberia. In contrast, isotopic data suggest that the uppermost Manykai Formation and the basal 26 m of the unconformably overlying Medvezhya Formation may have no equivalent in the southeast; they appear to provide a sedimentary and palaeontological record of an evolutionarily significant time interval represented in southeastern Siberia only by the sub-Tommotian unconformity. Correlations with radiometrically dated horizons in the Olenek and Kharaulakh regions of northern Siberia suggest that this interval lasted approximately three to six million years, during which essentially all 'basal Tommotian' small shelly fossils evolved.
2 - Geological Evolution of the Proterozoic Earth
-
- By Donald R. Lowe, Stanford University, Nicolas J. Beukes, Rand Afrikaans University, John P. Grotzinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Raymond V. Ingersoll, University of California, Joseph L. Kirschvink, Institute of Technology, Cornelis Klein, University of New Mexico, Ian B. Lambert, Resource Assessment Commission, Australia, Ján Veizer, University of Ottawa
- Edited by J. William Schopf, University of California, Los Angeles, Cornelis Klein, University of New Mexico
-
- Book:
- The Proterozoic Biosphere
- Published online:
- 04 April 2011
- Print publication:
- 26 June 1992, pp 43-80
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The Proterozoic Eon extends from 2500 to 550 Ma, from the close of the Archean to the beginning of the Cambrian. It includes three principal geochronologic divisions: Lower or Proterozoic I (2500 to 1600 Ma), Middle or Proterozoic II (1600 to 900 Ma), and Upper or Proterozoic III (900 to 550 Ma). These definitions are consistent with previous usage (Schopf 1983a) and with recommendations of the Subcommission on Precambrian Stratigraphy of the International Union of Geological Sciences (Plumb and James 1986). Although some criticism has been voiced at the use of absolute ages rather than stratigraphic or paleontologic events for subdividing Precambrian time (Cloud 1987), we find that the lack of well-developed, widespread, narrowly constrained, isochronous Precambrian biostratigraphic markers, equivalent to Phanerozoic faunal successions, presents an as yet insurmountable barrier to the establishment of globally useful Precambrian biostratigraphic subdivisions.
Systematic treatment of the geological evolution of the Proterozoic earth and similar long-term or large-scale aspects of Proterozoic history is complicated at present by our incomplete knowledge of existing Proterozoic rocks, selective preservation/obliteration of certain types of terranes, and uncertain geochronology and correlation. Many Proterozoic sequences remain essentially unstudied, especially in parts of central and northern Africa, South America, and Asia, and their stratigraphies, ages, and tectonic settings are unresolved. Information from these sequences is essential to evaluation of global patterns of Proterozoic geologic evolution, sediment recycling, and tectonics.
6 - Modern Mat-Building Microbial Communities: a Key to the Interpretation of Proterozoic Stromatolitic Communities
-
- By Beverly K. Pierson, University of Puget Sound, John Bauld, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Richard W. Castenholz, University of Oregon, Elisa D'Amelio, Ames Research Center, David J. Des Marais, Ames Research Center, Jack D. Farmer, University of California, John P. Grotzinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bo Barker Jørgensen, University of Aarhus, Douglas C. Nelson, University of California, Anna C. Palmisano, Ivorydale Technical Center, J. William Schopf, University of California, Roger E. Summons, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Australia, Malcolm R. Walter, M. R. Walter Pty. Ltd, David M. Ward, Montana State University
- Edited by J. William Schopf, University of California, Los Angeles, Cornelis Klein, University of New Mexico
-
- Book:
- The Proterozoic Biosphere
- Published online:
- 04 April 2011
- Print publication:
- 26 June 1992, pp 245-342
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Modern microbial mats are structurally coherent macroscopic accumulations of microorganisms. Mats are widely distributed on earth. They are found in a surprisingly large number of diverse environments from the equatorial zones to both polar regions. They vary in size from extensive terrestrial and hypersaline mats that cover areas several square kilometers in extent to minute mats only a few square centimeters in area found in small thermal springs. They vary in thickness from massive accumulations measured in meters, such as those in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea region, to thin films less than a few millimeters in thickness. In addition to being highly varied in size, modern microbial mats are also very diverse in morphology, community structure, and physiological characteristics. What do such mats have in common? Under what conditions do they form? What is the basis of their diversity? What insight do they provide, if any, to the interpretation of the widespread stromatolites of the Proterozoic?
A Terminology
Microbial mats are accretionary cohesive microbial communities which are often laminated and found growing at the sediment-water (occasionally sediment-air) interface. Most mats stabilize unconsolidated sediment. The mats are comprised of the various microorganisms that accumulate along with their metabolic products. The most conspicuous of these products is usually a copious amount of extracellular polysaccharide which helps hold the cells together to form a cohesive structure.