Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:35:51.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New multicellular algal fossils and acritarchs in Doushantuo chert nodules (Neoproterozoic; Yangtze Gorges, south China)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Shuhai Xiao
Shuhai Xiao*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118,
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The late Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation in South China contains several exceptionally preserved biotas in its cherts, phosphorites, and black shales (Xiao et al., 1998b, 2002; Zhang et al., 1998). The three taphonomic windows—silicification, phosphatization, and carbonaceous compression—responsible for most of the preservation of nonbiomineralizing organisms in geologic history are all open in the Doushantuo Formation. In combination, these three taphonomic windows have the potential to give us a clearer and more complete picture of late Neoproterozoic biodiversity. Comparison across the three also allows us to evaluate possible taphonomic biases and paleoecological heterogeneity. To accomplish these, however, a more thorough paleontological investigation of each taphonomic facies is necessary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , March 2004 , pp. 393 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barfod, G. H., Albaréde, F., Knoll, A. H., Xiao, S., Télouk, P., Frei, R., and Baker, J. 2002. New Lu-Hf and Pb-Pb age constraints on the earliest animal fossils. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 201:203–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowring, S., Myrow, P., Landing, E., Ramezani, J., and Grotzinger, J. 2003. Geochronological constraints on terminal Neoproterozoic events and the rise of metazoans. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 5:13219.Google Scholar
Butterfield, N. J., Knoll, A. H., and Swett, K. 1994. Paleobiology of the Neoproterozoic Svanbergfjellet Formation, Spitsbergen. Fossils and Strata, 34:1–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, M., and Liu, K. 1986. The geological significance of newly discovered microfossils from the upper Sinian (Doushantuo age) phosphorites. Scientia Geologica Sinica, 1:46–53.Google Scholar
Graham, L. E., Cook, M. E., and Busse, J. S. 2000. The origin of plants: body plan changes contributing to a major evolutionary radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 97:4535–4540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermann, T. N. 1974. Findings of mass accumulations of trichomes in the Riphean, p. 6–10. In Timofeev, B. V. (ed.), Proterozoic and Paleozoic Microfossils of the USSR. Nauka, Moscow.Google Scholar
Knoll, A. H. 1992. Microfossils in metasedimentary cherts of the Scotia Group, Prins Karls Forland, western Svalbard. Palaeontology, 35:751–774.Google Scholar
Kolosova, S. P. 1991. Pozdnedokembriyskie shipovatie mikrofossilii vostoka sibirkoy platformi [Late Precambrian acanthomorphic acritarchs from the eastern Siberian Platform]. Algologiya [Algologia], 1:53–59.Google Scholar
Niklas, K. J. 2000. The evolution of plant body plans: a biomechanical perspective. Annals of Botany, 85:411–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reitlinger, E. A. 1948. Kembriiskie foraminiferi Yakutii (Cambrian Foraminifera of Yakutia). Byulletin' Moskovskogo Obshchestva Ispyatatelej Prirody, Otdelenie Geologii, 23:77–81.Google Scholar
Schopf, J. W. 1968. Microflora of the Bitter Springs Formation, Late Precambrian, central Australia. Journal of Paleontology, 42:651–688.Google Scholar
Steiner, M. 1994. Die neoproterozoischen Megaalgen Südchinas. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (E), 15:1–146.Google Scholar
Thompson, M. D., and Bowring, S. A. 2000. Age of the Squantum “tillite”, Boston Basin, Massachussetts: U-Pb zircon constraints on terminal Neoproterozoic glaciation. American Journal of Science, 300:630–655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiwari, M., and Knoll, A. H. 1994. Large acanthomorphic acritarchs from the Infrakrol Formation of the Lesser Himalaya and their stratigraphic significance. Journal of Himalayan Geology, 5:193–201.Google Scholar
Xiao, S., and Knoll, A. H. 2000a. Fossil preservation in the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo phosphorite Lagerstätte, South China. Lethaia, 32:219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, S., and Knoll, A. H. 2000b. Phosphatized animal embryos from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation at Weng'an, Guizhou, South China. Journal of Paleontology, 74:767–788.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, S., Knoll, A. H., and Yuan, X. 1998a. Morphological reconstruction of Miaohephyton bifurcatum, a possible brown alga from the Doushantuo Formation (Neoproterozoic), South China, and its implications for stramenopile evolution. Journal of Paleontology, 72:1072–1086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, S., Yuan, X., and Knoll, A. H. 2000. Eumetazoan fossils in terminal Proterozoic phosphorites? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 97:13684–13689.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xiao, S., Zhang, Y., and Knoll, A. H. 1998b. Three-dimensional preservation of algae and animal embryos in a Neoproterozoic phosphorite. Nature, 391:553–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, S., Knoll, A. H., Zhang, L., and Hua, H. 1999. The discovery of Wengania globosa in Doushantuo phosphorites in Chadian, Shaanxi Province. Acta Micropalaeontologica Sinica, 16:259–266.Google Scholar
Xiao, S., Yuan, X., Steiner, M., and Knoll, A. H. 2002. Macroscopic carbonaceous compressions in a terminal Proterozoic shale: a systematic reassessment of the Miaohe biota, South China. Journal of Paleontology, 76:345–374.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, C. 1999. Microfossils from the Upper Sinian (Late Neoproterozoic) Doushantuo Formation in Changyang, western Hubei, China. Continental Dynamics, 4:1–18.Google Scholar
Yin, C. 2001. Discovery of Papillomembrana compta in Weng'an, Guizhou with discussion on the correlation of the large acanthomorphic acritarchs and the age of the Doushantuo Formation. Journal of Stratigraphy, 25:253–258.Google Scholar
Yin, C., and Liu, G. 1988. Micropaleofloras, p. 170–180. In Zhao, Z., Xing, Y., Ding, Q., Liu, G., Zhao, Y., Zhang, S., Meng, X., Yin, C., Ning, B., and Han, P. (eds.), The Sinian System of Hubei. China University of Geosciences Press, Wuhan.Google Scholar
Yin, C., Gao, L., and Xing, Y. 2001. Discovery of Tianzhushania in Doushantuo phosphorites, in Weng'an, Guizhou Province. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 40:497–504.Google Scholar
Yin, L., and Li, Z. 1978. Precambrian microfloras of southwest China with reference to their stratigraphic significance. Memoir Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica, 10:41–108.Google Scholar
Yin, L., and Xue, Y. 1993. An extraordinary microfossil assemblage from terminal Proterozoic phosphate deposits in south China. Chinese Journal of Botany, 5(2):168–175.Google Scholar
Yuan, X., and Hofmann, H. J. 1998. New microfossils from the Neoproterozoic (Sinian) Doushantuo Formation, Weng'an, Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Alcheringa, 22:189–222.Google Scholar
Yuan, X., Wang, Q., and Zhang, Y. 1993. Late Precambrian Weng'an Biota from Guizhou, southwest China. Acta Micropalaeontologica Sinica, 10:409–420.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y. 1989. Multicellular thallophytes with differentiated tissues from late Proterozoic phosphate rocks of South China. Lethaia, 22:113–132.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., and Yuan, X. 1992. New data on multicellular thallophytes and fragments of cellular tissues from late Proterozoic phosphate rocks, South China. Lethaia, 25:1–18.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., Yin, L., Xiao, S., and Knoll, A. H. 1998. Permineralized fossils from the terminal Proterozoic Doushantuo Formation, South China. The Paleontological Society Memoir, 50, 52 p.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z. 1984. A new microphytoplankton species from the Sinian of western Hubei Province. Acta Botanica Sinica, 26(1):94–98.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z. 1985. Coccoid microfossils from the Doushantuo Formation (Late Sinian) of South China. Precambrian Research, 28:163–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Z. 1986. New material of filamentous fossil cyanophytes from the Doushantuo Formation (late Sinian) in the eastern Yangtze Gorge. Acta Geologica Sinica, 1986(1):30–37.Google Scholar
Zhou, C., Brasier, M. D., and Xue, Y. 2001. Three-dimensional phosphatic preservation of giant acritarchs from the terminal Proterozoic Doushantuo Formation in Guizhou and Hubei provinces, South China. Palaeontology, 44:1157–1178.Google Scholar
Zhou, C., Chen, Z., and Xue, Y. 2002. New microfossils from the late Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation at Chaoyang phosphorite deposit in Jiangxi Province, South China. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 41:178–192.Google Scholar