Early Ordovician reef construction in Anhui Province, South China: A geobiological transition from microbial- to metazoan-dominant reefs

• Published in: Sedimentary Geology
• Main Authors: Adachi, Natsuko, Ezaki, Yoichi, Liu, Jianbo, Cao, Jun
• Other Authors: Adachi, N (reprint author), Peking Univ, Sch Earth & Space Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Sch Earth & Space Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Osaka City Univ, Grad Sch Sci, Dept Geosci, Sumiyoshi Ku, Osaka 5588585, Japan.
• Format: Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: sedimentary geology 2009
• Subjects: Lithistid sponge; Micrite; Microbe; Ordovician radiation; Reef; Stromatolite; ST-GEORGE GROUP; WESTERN NEWFOUNDLAND; SILICEOUS SPONGES; MUD-MOUNDS; CALCIFICATION; COMMUNITIES; LIMESTONES; EXTINCTION; AUSTRALIA; BUILDUPS; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/155936; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2009.05.012

The Lower Ordovician records a transition from microbial- to metazoan-dominant reefs immediately prior to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. The Hunghuayuan Formation (late Tremadocian-early Floian) of the Jianxin section in Anhui Province, South China, includes well-preserved reefs, which consist of a combination of microbial boundstones and microbial-lithistid sponge-receptaculitid boundstones. The microbial boundstones are characteristically made up of nodular or columnar stromatolites produced by an irregular alternation of Girvanella-rich layers and thick micrite layers in which the filamentous calcimicrobe Girvanella and bioclasts occur sporadically. Microbial biofilms, including the filamentous microbes, may have trapped and bound lime mud and/or precipitated micrite during their growth and metabolic activities. These activities contemporaneously contributed to substrate stabilisation, encrustation, and the construction of microbialite frameworks (stromatolites). In contrast, the microbial-lithistid sponge-receptaculitid boundstones are characterised by more micritic constituents than skeletal reef-building constituents. Thin and/or domal crusts produced by peloid and dense micrite, together with various proportions of Girvanella, occur upon bioclastic sediments and reef-building skeletal organisms. These micritic crusts with Girvanella therefore played roles as binders and stabilisers, and as consolidators by encrusting reef-building skeletal organisms. In the boundstones, it is remarkable that the degradation of lithistid sponges, due to microbial decay, produced micrite in the sponge bodies. As a result, lithistid sponges played an apparently inconspicuous but potentially significant role as micrite producers as well as automicrite framework constructors. These Lower Ordovician reefs, in which microbialites (e.g., stromatolites) dominate but coexist with metazoans (e.g., sponges), were widespread at the time. They provide excellent examples for understanding reefal palaeoecology during the transition from microbe-dominant reefs to reefs enriched in metazoans. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000270643300001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701 Geology SCI(E) 21 ARTICLE 1-2 1-11 220