Deciphering The Preservation Of Fossil Insects: A Case Study From The Crato Member, Early Cretaceous Of Brazil

Exceptionally well-preserved three-dimensional insects with fine details and even labile tissues are ubiquitous in the Crato Member Konservat Lagerstätte (northeastern Brazil). Here we investigate the preservational pathways which yielded such specimens. We employed high resolution techniques (EDXRF, SR-SXS, SEM, EDS, micro Raman, and PIXE) to understand their fossilisation on mineralogical and geochemical grounds. Pseudomorphs of framboidal pyrite, the dominant fossil microfabric, display size variation when comparing cuticle with inner areas or soft tissues, which we interpret as the result of the balance between ion diffusion rates and nucleation rates of pyrite through the originally decaying carcasses. Furthermore, the mineral fabrics are associated with structures that can be the remains of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Geochemical data also point to a concentration of Fe, Zn, and Cu in the fossils in comparison to the embedding rock. Therefore, we consider that biofilms of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) had a central role in insect decay and mineralisation. Therefore, we shed light on exceptional preservation of fossils by pyritisation in a Cretaceous limestone lacustrine palaeoenvironment. © 2016 Osés et al.20161

Environmental and diagenetic controls on the morphology and calcification of the Ediacaran metazoan Cloudina

Abstract Cloudina is a globally distributed Ediacaran metazoan, with a tubular, funnel-in-funnel form built of thin laminae (ca. 1–10 μm). To what degree local environmental controlled morphology, and whether early diagenesis controlled the degree of calcification of Cloudina, is debated. Here we test these hypotheses by considering assemblages from four, coeval localities from the Upper Omkyk Member, Nama Group, Namibia, from inner ramp to mid-ramp reef across the Zaris Subbasin. We show that sinuosity of the Cloudina tube is variable between sites, as is the relative thickness of the tube wall, suggesting these features were environmentally controlled. Walls are thickest in high-energy reef settings, and thinnest in the low-energy, inner ramp. While local diagenesis controls preservation, all diagenetic expressions are consistent with the presence of weakly calcified, organic-rich laminae, and lamina thicknesses are broadly constant. Finally, internal ‘cements’ within Cloudina are found in all sites, and pre-date skeletal breakage, transport, as well as syn-sedimentary botryoidal cement precipitation. Best preservation shows these to be formed by fine, pseudomorphed aragonitic acicular crystals. Sr concentrations and Mg/Ca show no statistically significant differences between internal Cloudina cements and botryoidal cements, but we infer all internal cements to have precipitated when Cloudina was still in-situ and added considerable mechanical strength, but may have formed post-mortem or in abandoned parts of the skeleton

Strong interplays between eustacy, nitrogen dynamic, and biodiversification between the Ediacaran and Silurian interval

The Ediacaran to Silurian geological interval of the Podolia Basin, southwestern Ukraine, is associated with significant environmental change and biodiversification of morphologically complex biota. Using a multiproxy approach, including total Nitrogen (TN), nitrogen and carbon isotopes, total organic matter (TOC), and whole-rock geochemistry, we show that localised and transient nitrate scarcity may have persisted in otherwise oxygenated and nitrate-replete oceans during the period of extensive animal diversification. Bulk δ15Nbulk data suggest stable partial denitrification between the middle Ediacaran and Silurian, indicating the existence of a large seawater nitrate reservoir in redox stratified waters that sustained the complex biota. Importantly, the switch to climate warming combined with the nitrate-rich waters in the early Paleozoic triggered a rapid phytoplankton and zooplankton bloom. This transition likely supported efficient nutrient flow to higher trophic levels, resulting in an increase in animal body size, biodiversification, and complexity during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Nonetheless, the upper Ediacaran and upper Silurian strata suggest a progressive near-quantitative denitrification with diazotrophic primary production as the primary nitrogen source. The generated nitrate scarcity was likely transient with no significant biological incidence since the early Paleozoic emergence and diversification of animals in the Podolia Basin are well recorded. The shift to dominant lighter marine sedimentary δ15Nbulk composition perhaps resulted from the expansion of anoxic conditions in open marine environments during the Silurian sea-level rises and falls

Modern Industrial Economics and Competition Policy: Open Problems and Possible Limits

Naturally, competition policy is based on competition economics made applicable in terms of law and its enforcement. Within the different branches of competition economics, modern industrial economics, or more precisely gametheoretic oligopoly theory, has become the dominating paradigm both in the U.S. (since the 1990s Post-Chicago movement) and in the EU (so-called more economic approach in the 2000s). This contribution reviews the state of the art in antitrust-oriented modern industrial economics and, in particular, critically discusses open questions and possible limits of basing antitrust on modern industrial economics. In doing so, it provides some hints how to escape current enforcement problems in industrial economics-based competition policy on both sides of the Atlantic. In particular, the paper advocates a change of the way modern industrial economics is used in competition policy: instead of more and more case-by-cases analyses, the insights from modern industrial economics should be used to design better competition rules

Temporal and spatial analysis of the 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa

West Africa is currently witnessing the most extensive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak so far recorded. Until now, there have been 27,013 reported cases and 11,134 deaths. The origin of the virus is thought to have been a zoonotic transmission from a bat to a two-year-old boy in December 2013 (ref. 2). From this index case the virus was spread by human-to-human contact throughout Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, the origin of the particular virus in each country and time of transmission is not known and currently relies on epidemiological analysis, which may be unreliable owing to the difficulties of obtaining patient information. Here we trace the genetic evolution of EBOV in the current outbreak that has resulted in multiple lineages. Deep sequencing of 179 patient samples processed by the European Mobile Laboratory, the first diagnostics unit to be deployed to the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea, reveals an epidemiological and evolutionary history of the epidemic from March 2014 to January 2015. Analysis of EBOV genome evolution has also benefited from a similar sequencing effort of patient samples from Sierra Leone. Our results confirm that the EBOV from Guinea moved into Sierra Leone, most likely in April or early May. The viruses of the Guinea/Sierra Leone lineage mixed around June/July 2014. Viral sequences covering August, September and October 2014 indicate that this lineage evolved independently within Guinea. These data can be used in conjunction with epidemiological information to test retrospectively the effectiveness of control measures, and provides an unprecedented window into the evolution of an ongoing viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak.status: publishe

Paleometry as a key tool to deal with paleobiological and astrobiological issues: some contributions and reflections on the Brazilian fossil record

AbstractInvestigations into the existence of life in other parts of the cosmos find strong parallels with studies of the origin and evolution of life on our own planet. In this way, astrobiology and paleobiology are married by their common interest in disentangling the interconnections between life and the surrounding environment. In this way, a cross-point of both sciences is paleometry, which involves a myriad of imaging and geochemical techniques, usually non-destructive, applied to the investigation of the fossil record. In the last decades, paleometry has benefited from an unprecedented technological improvement, thus solving old questions and raising new ones. This advance has been paralleled by conceptual approaches and discoveries fuelled by technological evolution in astrobiological research. In this context, we present some new data and review recent advances on the employment of paleometry to investigations on paleobiology and astrobiology in Brazil in areas such biosignatures in Ediacaran microbial mats, biogenicity tests on enigmatic Ediacaran structures, research on Ediacaran metazoan biomineralization, fossil preservation in Cretaceous insects and fish, and finally the experimental study on the decay of fish to test the effect of distinct types of sediment on soft-tissue preservation, as well as the effects of early diagenesis on fish bone preservation.</jats:p

Paleometry as a key tool to deal with paleobiological and astrobiological issues: some contributions and reflections on the Brazilian fossil record

Investigations into the existence of life in other parts of the cosmos find strong parallels with studies of the origin and evolution of life on our own planet. In this way, astrobiology and paleobiology are married by their common interest in disentangling the interconnections between life and the surrounding environment. In this way, a cross-point of both sciences is paleometry, which involves a myriad of imaging and geochemical techniques, usually non-destructive, applied to the investigation of the fossil record. In the last decades, paleometry has benefited from an unprecedented technological improvement, thus solving old questions and raising new ones. This advance has been paralleled by conceptual approaches and discoveries fuelled by technological evolution in astrobiological research. In this context, we present some new data and review recent advances on the employment of paleometry to investigations on paleobiology and astrobiology in Brazil in areas such biosignatures in Ediacaran microbial mats, biogenicity tests on enigmatic Ediacaran structures, research on Ediacaran metazoan biomineralization, fossil preservation in Cretaceous insects and fish, and finally the experimental study on the decay of fish to test the effect of distinct types of sediment on soft-tissue preservation, as well as the effects of early diagenesis on fish bone preservation.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Univ Fed Sao Carlos, Programa Posgrad Biotecnol & Monitorament Ambient, Rod Joao Leme dos Santos Km 110, BR-18052780 Sorocaba, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Carlos, Programa Posgrad Ecol & Recursos Nat, Washington Luiz 325 Km, BR-13565905 Sao Carlos, BrazilUniv Sao Paulo, Inst Geociencias, Rua Lago 562, BR-05508080 Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Mato Grosso do Sul, Inst Quim, Cidade Univ,Ave Costa & Silva Pioneiros, BR-79070900 Campo Grande, MS, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Carlos, Dept Biol, Campus Sorocaba,Rod Joao Leme dos Santos Km 110, BR-18052780 Sorocaba, BrazilBrazilian Ctr Res Energy & Mat, Brazilian Synchrotron Light Lab, Ave Giuseppe Maximo Scolfaro 10000, BR-13083100 Campinas, BrazilUniv Estadual Paulista, Unidade Diferenciada Sorocaba, Ave 3 Marco,511 Alto Boa Vista, BR-18087180 Sorocaba, BrazilTech Univ Munich, Dept Phys, Garching, GermanyTech Univ Munich, Inst Med Engn, Garching, GermanyUniv Sao Paulo, Inst Fis, Rua Matao,Travessa R 187, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Estadual Paulista, Unidade Diferenciada Sorocaba, Ave 3 Marco,511 Alto Boa Vista, BR-18087180 Sorocaba, BrazilFAPESP: 2009/02312-4FAPESP: 2016/01827-4FAPESP: 2016/06114-6FAPESP: 2016/17219-3FAPESP: 2017/21584-