Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms
Copyright © 2016, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). The mechanisms by which soft-bodied organisms were preserved in late Ediacaran deep-marine environments are revealed by petrographic and geochemical investigation of fossil-bearing surfaces from the Conception and St. John's groups (Newf...
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/289306 2024-01-14T10:08:46+01:00 Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms Liu, AG 2016 application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289306 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.36555 eng eng Society for Sedimentary Geology http://dx.doi.org/10.2110/palo.2015.095 Palaios https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289306 doi:10.17863/CAM.36555 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 31 Biological Sciences 3103 Ecology 37 Earth Sciences 3705 Geology 14 Life Below Water Article 2016 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.36555 2023-12-21T23:29:55Z Copyright © 2016, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). The mechanisms by which soft-bodied organisms were preserved in late Ediacaran deep-marine environments are revealed by petrographic and geochemical investigation of fossil-bearing surfaces from the Conception and St. John's groups (Newfoundland, Canada). Framboidal pyrite veneers are documented on fossilbearing horizons at multiple localities. The pyrite is interpreted to have formed via microbial processes in the hours to weeks following burial of benthic communities. This finding extends the 'death mask' model for Ediacaran soft-tissue preservation to deep-marine settings. Remineralization of pyrite to iron oxides and oxyhydroxides is recognized to result from recent oxidation by meteoric fluids in the shallow subsurface. Consideration of other global Ediacaran macrofossil occurrences reveals that pyrite is observed in association with Ediacaran macrofossils preserved in all four previously described styles of moldic preservation (Flinders-, Conception-, Fermeuse- and Nama-type). This suggests that replication of external morphology by framboidal pyrite was a widespread mechanism by which softbodied organisms and associated organic surfaces were preserved, in multiple facies and depositional environments, 580-541 million years ago. The extensive global burial of pyrite in medium- to coarse-grained clastics and carbonates is a previously unrecognized yet potentially significant geological sink of iron and sulfur, and may have contributed to rising atmospheric and marine oxygen concentrations across the late Ediacaran interval. NERC IRF Article in Journal/Newspaper Newfoundland Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository Canada Flinders ENVELOPE(-66.667,-66.667,-69.267,-69.267) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 31 Biological Sciences 3103 Ecology 37 Earth Sciences 3705 Geology 14 Life Below Water |
spellingShingle |
3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 31 Biological Sciences 3103 Ecology 37 Earth Sciences 3705 Geology 14 Life Below Water Liu, AG Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
topic_facet |
3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience 31 Biological Sciences 3103 Ecology 37 Earth Sciences 3705 Geology 14 Life Below Water |
description |
Copyright © 2016, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). The mechanisms by which soft-bodied organisms were preserved in late Ediacaran deep-marine environments are revealed by petrographic and geochemical investigation of fossil-bearing surfaces from the Conception and St. John's groups (Newfoundland, Canada). Framboidal pyrite veneers are documented on fossilbearing horizons at multiple localities. The pyrite is interpreted to have formed via microbial processes in the hours to weeks following burial of benthic communities. This finding extends the 'death mask' model for Ediacaran soft-tissue preservation to deep-marine settings. Remineralization of pyrite to iron oxides and oxyhydroxides is recognized to result from recent oxidation by meteoric fluids in the shallow subsurface. Consideration of other global Ediacaran macrofossil occurrences reveals that pyrite is observed in association with Ediacaran macrofossils preserved in all four previously described styles of moldic preservation (Flinders-, Conception-, Fermeuse- and Nama-type). This suggests that replication of external morphology by framboidal pyrite was a widespread mechanism by which softbodied organisms and associated organic surfaces were preserved, in multiple facies and depositional environments, 580-541 million years ago. The extensive global burial of pyrite in medium- to coarse-grained clastics and carbonates is a previously unrecognized yet potentially significant geological sink of iron and sulfur, and may have contributed to rising atmospheric and marine oxygen concentrations across the late Ediacaran interval. NERC IRF |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Liu, AG |
author_facet |
Liu, AG |
author_sort |
Liu, AG |
title |
Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
title_short |
Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
title_full |
Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
title_fullStr |
Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
title_sort |
framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the 'death mask' model for moldic preservation of ediacaran soft-bodied organisms |
publisher |
Society for Sedimentary Geology |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289306 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.36555 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-66.667,-66.667,-69.267,-69.267) |
geographic |
Canada Flinders |
geographic_facet |
Canada Flinders |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/289306 doi:10.17863/CAM.36555 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.36555 |
_version_ |
1788063172603674624 |