TY - JOUR

T1 - Preservation of Soft-Bodied Organisms in Early Cambrian Carbonates

AU - Marusin, V.V.

AU - Bykova, N.V.

N1 - This research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grants No. 22-77-00026 (V.V. Marusin; taxonomical and EEI analysis of the ichnoassemblage) and No. 21-17-00052 (N.V. Bykova; SEM study and investigation of the soft-bodied fossils). The study is coordinated by the Basic Research Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences FWZZ-2022-0002. We thank D.V. Grazhdankin, V.I. Rogov, K.E. Nagovitsin, and B.B. Kochnev (IPGG SB RAS, Novosibirsk) for their help during fieldworks. The authors are grateful to M.V. Khlestov (IGM SB RAS, Novosibirsk) for guidance during the SEM study. The insight-ful recommendations and comments by the reviewers – A. Yu. Zhuravlev (Moscow State University) and a second anonymous reviewer became a huge contribution to the paper and are warmly appreciated.

PY - 2023/10/1

Y1 - 2023/10/1

N2 - Preservation of soft-bodied organisms as casts is common in the Ediacaran fossil record and extremely rare in Cambrian rocks. Among the factors, limiting fossilization of soft tissues, there is bioturbation-sediment disturbance by burrowing organisms. It is the emergence of burrowing metazoans and associated sediment bioturbation that is thought to be one of the major causes for the disappearance of Ediacaran soft-bodied organisms from the fossil record around ~540 Ma. Here, we study an assemblage of fossils preserved as casts in the Fortunian carbonates of the Olenek Uplift (northeastern Siberian Platform) in association with a typical Fortunian ichnoassemblage. The overall morphology and preservation of the fossils reveal that they comprise microbially induced sedimentary structures and soft-bodied holdfasts. The latter are vaguely reminiscent of some Ediacaran holdfasts, though it is unlikely that they include their phylogenetic descendants. Three-dimensional preservation of the studied fossils was caused by authigenic crystallization of calcite and its further early-diagenetic dolomitization. Our study confirms the critical importance of specific environmental conditions ensuring preservation of soft-bodied organisms as three-dimensional molds and casts. This unique interplay of environmental factors became rare in the Cambrian Period, which was caused by intensification and expansion of bioturbation in marine basins.

AB - Preservation of soft-bodied organisms as casts is common in the Ediacaran fossil record and extremely rare in Cambrian rocks. Among the factors, limiting fossilization of soft tissues, there is bioturbation-sediment disturbance by burrowing organisms. It is the emergence of burrowing metazoans and associated sediment bioturbation that is thought to be one of the major causes for the disappearance of Ediacaran soft-bodied organisms from the fossil record around ~540 Ma. Here, we study an assemblage of fossils preserved as casts in the Fortunian carbonates of the Olenek Uplift (northeastern Siberian Platform) in association with a typical Fortunian ichnoassemblage. The overall morphology and preservation of the fossils reveal that they comprise microbially induced sedimentary structures and soft-bodied holdfasts. The latter are vaguely reminiscent of some Ediacaran holdfasts, though it is unlikely that they include their phylogenetic descendants. Three-dimensional preservation of the studied fossils was caused by authigenic crystallization of calcite and its further early-diagenetic dolomitization. Our study confirms the critical importance of specific environmental conditions ensuring preservation of soft-bodied organisms as three-dimensional molds and casts. This unique interplay of environmental factors became rare in the Cambrian Period, which was caused by intensification and expansion of bioturbation in marine basins.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85174021183&origin=inward&txGid=59ba0d74a62d2511c0f80ae5b774d744

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/33f3e6f7-1738-3d45-81a0-dcd1f3724d6a/

U2 - 10.2113/RGG20234595

DO - 10.2113/RGG20234595

M3 - Article

VL - 64

SP - 1179

EP - 1195

JO - Russian Geology and Geophysics

JF - Russian Geology and Geophysics

SN - 1068-7971

IS - 10

M1 - 3

ER -