Microbialite resurgence after the Late Ordovician extinction

Nature
Peter M Sheehan, Mark T Harris

Abstract

Microbialites, including biogenic stromatolites, thrombolites and dendrolites, were formed by various microbial mats that trapped and bound sediments or formed the locus of mineral precipitation. Microbialites were common and diverse during the Proterozoic, but declined in abundance and morphological diversity when multicellular life diversified during the Cambrian Radiation. A second decline occurred during the Ordovician Radiation of marine animals, and from then until the present microbialites have been confined largely to high-stress environments where multicellular organisms are rare. The microbialite declines in the Phanerozoic are attributed to disruption of the mats by animals. A resurgence of stromatolite abundance and size during reduced animal diversity after the Permian extinction has been documented anecdotally. Here we show, with statistical support, that a microbialite resurgence also occurred after the Late Ordovician extinction event in western North America. The resurgences were associated with loss of mat-inhibiting animals, providing insights into shallow-water community structures after extinction events.

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Citations

Dec 18, 2013·BMC Biology·Julie A Theriot
Dec 15, 2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·A Z Krug, M E Patzkowsky
Apr 5, 2008·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·David Jablonski
Sep 20, 2005·Current Biology : CB·Simon Conway Morris
Mar 7, 2020·The Depositional Record : a Journal of Biological, Physical and Geochemical Sedimentary Processes·William J FosterJörn Peckmann
Jan 20, 2018·Scientific Reports·Martin QvarnströmGrzegorz Niedźwiedzki
Apr 1, 2014·Journal of Phycology·Linda E GrahamPatricia Arancibia-Avila
Jun 6, 2021·Environmental Microbiology Reports·Patricio Guillermo VillafañeMaría Eugenia Farías

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