The 2.1 Ga Old Francevillian Biota: Biogenicity, Taphonomy and Biodiversity

Type Article
Date 2014-06
Language English
Author(s) El Albani Abderrazak1, Bengtson Stefan2, Canfield Donald E.3, Riboulleau Armelle4, Bard Claire Rollion5, Macchiarelli Roberto6, 7, Pemba Lauriss Ngombi1, Hammarlund Emma2, 3, Meunier Alain1, Mouele Idalina Moubiya1, Benzerara Karim8, Bernard Sylvain8, Boulvais Philippe9, Chaussidon Marc5, Cesari Christian4, Fontaine Claude1, Chi-Fru Ernest10, Garcia Ruiz Juan Manuel11, Gauthier-Lafaye Francois12, Mazurier Arnaud13, Pierson-Wickmann Anne Catherine9, Rouxel OlivierORCID14, Trentesaux Alain4, Vecoli Marco4, Versteegh Gerard J. M.15, White Lee16, Whitehouse Martin17, 18, Bekker Andrey19
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Poitiers, CNRS INSU, UMR 7285, Inst IC2MP, Poitiers, France.
2 : Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Dept Palaeozool, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden.
3 : Nord Ctr Earth Evolut, Odense M, Denmark.
4 : Univ Lille 1, CNRS, UMR 8217, Lab Geosyst, F-59655 Villeneuve Dascq, France.
5 : CNRS, UMR 7358, Ctr Rech Petrog & Geochim, Vandoeuvre Les Nancy, France.
6 : Univ Poitiers, Dept Geosci, Poitiers, France.
7 : Museum Natl Hist Nat, CNRS, UMR 7194, Dept Prehist, Paris, France.
8 : Univ Paris 04, IMPMC, UMR 7590, MNHN,UPMC,IRD UMR 206, Paris, France.
9 : Univ Rennes, UMR 6118, Dept Geosci, Rennes, France.
10 : Stockholm Univ, Dept Geol Sci, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
11 : Univ Granada, CSIC, Inst Andaluz Ciencias Tierra, Granada 18100, Spain.
12 : CNRS, UMR 7517, Lab Hydrol & Geochim Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
13 : CRI Biopole, Soc Etud Rech Mat, Poitiers, France.
14 : IFREMER, Dept Phys Resources & Deep Sea Ecosyst Technopole, Plouzane, France.
15 : Marum Ctr Marine Environm Sci, Bremen, Germany.
16 : Agence Natl Parcs Nationaux, Libreville, Gabon.
17 : Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Lab Isotope Geol, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden.
18 : Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Nord Ctr Earth Evolut, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden.
19 : Univ Calif Riverside, Dept Earth Sci, Riverside, CA 92521 USA.
Source Plos One (1932-6203) (Public Library Science), 2014-06 , Vol. 9 , N. 6 , P. e99438
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0099438
WOS© Times Cited 44
Abstract The Paleoproterozoic Era witnessed crucial steps in the evolution of Earth's surface environments following the first appreciable rise of free atmospheric oxygen concentrations similar to 2.3 to 2.1 Ga ago, and concomitant shallow ocean oxygenation. While most sedimentary successions deposited during this time interval have experienced thermal overprinting from burial diagenesis and metamorphism, the ca. 2.1 Ga black shales of the Francevillian B Formation (FB2) cropping out in southeastern Gabon have not. The Francevillian Formation contains centimeter-sized structures interpreted as organized and spatially discrete populations of colonial organisms living in an oxygenated marine ecosystem. Here, new material from the FB2 black shales is presented and analyzed to further explore its biogenicity and taphonomy. Our extended record comprises variably sized, shaped, and structured pyritized macrofossils of lobate, elongated, and rodshaped morphologies as well as abundant non-pyritized disk-shaped macrofossils and organic-walled acritarchs. Combined microtomography, geochemistry, and sedimentary analysis suggest a biota fossilized during early diagenesis. The emergence of this biota follows a rise in atmospheric oxygen, which is consistent with the idea that surface oxygenation allowed the evolution and ecological expansion of complex megascopic life.
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El Albani Abderrazak, Bengtson Stefan, Canfield Donald E., Riboulleau Armelle, Bard Claire Rollion, Macchiarelli Roberto, Pemba Lauriss Ngombi, Hammarlund Emma, Meunier Alain, Mouele Idalina Moubiya, Benzerara Karim, Bernard Sylvain, Boulvais Philippe, Chaussidon Marc, Cesari Christian, Fontaine Claude, Chi-Fru Ernest, Garcia Ruiz Juan Manuel, Gauthier-Lafaye Francois, Mazurier Arnaud, Pierson-Wickmann Anne Catherine, Rouxel Olivier, Trentesaux Alain, Vecoli Marco, Versteegh Gerard J. M., White Lee, Whitehouse Martin, Bekker Andrey (2014). The 2.1 Ga Old Francevillian Biota: Biogenicity, Taphonomy and Biodiversity. Plos One, 9(6), e99438. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099438 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00202/31356/