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Journal article
The trace fossil record of the Nama Group, Namibia: Exploring the terminal Ediacaran roots of the Cambrian explosion
Earth-science reviews, v 212, 103435
Jan 2021
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Abstract
The Ediacaran–Cambrian transition marks one of the most important geobiological revolutions in Earth History, including multiple waves of evolutionary radiation and successive episodes of apparent mass extinction. Among the proposed drivers of these events (in particular the extinction of the latest Neoproterozoic ‘Ediacara biota’) is the emergence of complex metazoans and their associated behaviors. Many metazoans are thought to have crucial geobiological impacts on both resource availability and the character of the physical environment – ‘ecosystem engineering’ – biological processes best preserved in the geological record as trace fossils. Here, we review this model using the trace fossil record of the Ediacaran to Cambrian Nama Group of southern Namibia, combining previous published accounts with the results of our own field investigations. We produce a revised ichnostratigraphy for the Nama Group that catalogues new forms, eliminates others, and brings the trace fossil record of the Nama into much closer alignment with what is known from other Ediacaran sections worldwide. We provide evidence for a link between sequence stratigraphy, oxygen, and the emergence of more complex bilaterian behaviors. Lastly, we show that observed patterns of extinction and survival over pulses of Ediacaran extinction are hard to ally with any one specific source of ecological stress associated with bioturbation, and thus a biologically-driven extinction of the Ediacara biota, if it occurred, was more likely to have been driven by some combination of these factors, rather than any single one.
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Details
- Title
- The trace fossil record of the Nama Group, Namibia: Exploring the terminal Ediacaran roots of the Cambrian explosion
- Creators
- Simon A.F. Darroch - Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/MAlison T. Cribb - University of Southern CaliforniaLuis A. Buatois - University of SaskatchewanGerard J.B. Germs - University of the Free StateCharlotte G. Kenchington - Memorial University of NewfoundlandEmily F. Smith - Johns Hopkins UniversityHelke Mocke - Geological Survey of NamibiaGretchen R. O’Neil - North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USAJames D. Schiffbauer - University of MissouriKatie M. Maloney - University of TorontoRachel A. Racicot - Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/MKatherine A. Turk - Vanderbilt UniversityBrandt M. Gibson - Vanderbilt UniversityJohn Almond - Natura Viva cc, Cape Town 8001, South AfricaBryce Koester - Drexel UniversityTom H. Boag - Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94304, USASarah M. Tweedt - University of Colorado BoulderMarc Laflamme - University of Toronto
- Publication Details
- Earth-science reviews, v 212, 103435
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000603581300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85097480631
- Other Identifier
- 991019169101604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Geosciences, Multidisciplinary