Middle–Late Ordovician organic- walled phytoplankton from Sweden: diversity and early radiation

The Borenshult-1 core, drilled in the vicinity of Motala, east of Lake Vättern in south central Sweden, comprises a well-dated and nearly complete succession of marine marly carbonates deposited relatively close to land. The 34 core samples analyzed for palynology encompass the upper part of the Darriwilian (Furudal Limestone), the entire Sandbian (Dalby Limestone, the Kinnekulle K-bentonite and the lower Skagen Limestone) and the lower part of the Katian (Skagen Limestone). The age of this interval is well-constrained to the late Darriwilian (Stage slice Dw3)âearly Katian (Stage slice Ka1), based on conodonts and 206Pb/238U dating of volcanic ash deposits. The samples yielded predominantly marine organic-walled phytoplankton, mainly acritarchs, with subordinate chitinozoans, scolecodonts and fragments of graptolites. Sparse terrestrial palynomorphs, represented by cryptospores and trilete spores, were also found in 23 of the samples. A total of 154 acritarch species corresponding to 53 genera were identified, as well as low percentages of abnormal forms (teratological forms) of acritarch species at some levels. The strati­graphic distribution of genera and species allowed for three palynological assemblages to be distinguished: Assemblage A of a late Darriwilian age, Assemblage B of a Sandbian age (further subdivided into sub-assemblages B1 and B2), and Assemblage C dated as Katian. Genera such as Baltisphaeridium, Ordovicidium, Pachysphaeridium and Orthosphaeridum, which are common in Middle Ordovician phytoplankton assemblages from Baltica, are well represented, with several species, mainly in Assemblage A and sub-assemblage B1, up to the lower Sandbian. However, the presence of a majority of taxa with worldwide distribution supports the cosmopolitanism of the studied assemblages, already proposed to begin near the DarriwilianâSandbian transition. Notably, phytoplankton taxa with Silurian affinities, previously known from the Hirnantian, appear for the first time in the late Darriwilian part of the Borenshult-1 drillcore (Dw3). Important taxa occurring are Tylotopalla and Metaleiofusa, which is definitively established from the beginning of the Sandbian (early Late Ordovician), together with the first appearance of the genus Visbysphaera. These occurrences question the relationship between the appearance of pioneering phytoplankton morphotypes and the Hirnantian glaciation. Other taxa with no pre-Silurian records such as Visbysphaera pirifera subsp. minor, Petaloferidium cazurrum and Dorsennidium cf. D. estrellitae are here present in the Sandbian, where bentonite beds are intercalated. The genus Frankea is recorded for the first time from the Ordovician of Sweden, suggesting a high to middle latitudinal distribution instead of a peri-Gondwanan distribution. The highest diversity corresponds to the Darriwilian and partly to the Sandbian assemblages, followed by a significant decline in the Katian. The main changes are observed in the Sandbian, with a significant drop in diversity, which is probably related to intense volcanic activity rep­resented by the bentonite beds. Diversity as well as origination and turnover rates are the lowest in the interval bearing the suite of K-bentonites, particularly near the thickest of them. The marked drop in diversity in the Katian part of the succession, visible in both low originations and abundance, is possibly related to a regression at the onset of the GICE (Guttenberg isotope carbon excursion), with less favorable environmental and climatic conditions. Changes in phytoplankton assemblages together with the onset of innovative morphologies of acritarchs were previously interpreted as a consequence of environmental and climatic perturbations related to the Ordovician glaciation. Here we show that the first appearances of these advanced taxa already occurred ca 15 Ma earlier, suggesting that a possible combination of factors such as sea level changes and volcanism triggered these changes, instead of a major event such as the Hirnantian glaciation. Additionally, these new findings challenge previous models of evolution and radiation of the Ordovician phytoplankton and set up Baltica as a new key area for paleogeographical research

Global record of “ghost” nannofossils reveals plankton resilience to high CO_{2} and warming

Predictions of how marine calcifying organisms will respond to climate change rely heavily on the fossil record of nannoplankton. Declines in calcium carbonate (CaCO_{3}) and nannofossil abundance through several past global warming events have been interpreted as biocalcification crises caused by ocean acidification and related factors. We present a global record of imprint—or “ghost”—nannofossils that contradicts this view, revealing exquisitely preserved nannoplankton throughout an inferred Jurassic biocalcification crisis. Imprints from two further Cretaceous warming events confirm that the fossil records of these intervals have been strongly distorted by CaCO3 dissolution. Although the rapidity of present-day climate change exceeds the temporal resolution of most fossil records, complicating direct comparison with past warming events, our findings demonstrate that nannoplankton were more resilient to past events than traditional fossil evidence suggests

Lethal microbial blooms delayed freshwater ecosystem recovery following the end-Permian extinction

Harmful algal and bacterial blooms linked to deforestation, soil loss and global warming are increasingly frequent in lakes and rivers. We demonstrate that climate changes and deforestation can drive recurrent microbial blooms, inhibiting the recovery of freshwater ecosystems for hundreds of millennia. From the stratigraphic successions of the Sydney Basin, Australia, our fossil, sedimentary and geochemical data reveal bloom events following forest ecosystem collapse during the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history, the end- Permian event (EPE; c. 252.2 Ma). Microbial communities proliferated in lowland fresh and brackish waterbodies, with algal concentrations typical of modern blooms. These initiated before any trace of post-extinction recovery vegetation but recurred episodically for \u3e100 kyrs. During the following 3 Myrs, algae and bacteria thrived within short-lived, poorly-oxygenated, and likely toxic lakes and rivers. Comparisons to global deep-time records indicate that microbial blooms are persistent freshwater ecological stressors during warming-driven extinction events

Multiproxy analysis of a new terrestrial and a marine Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary site from New Zealand

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75 (2011): 657-672, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2010.10.016.An integrated study of palynology, Mössbauer spectroscopy, mineralogy and osmium isotopes has led to the detection of the first K-Pg boundary clay layer in a Southern Hemisphere terrestrial setting. The K-Pg boundary layer was independently identified at centimetre resolution by all the above mentioned methods at the marine K-Pg boundary site of mid-Waipara and the terrestrial site of Compressor Creek (Greymouth coal field), New Zealand. Mössbauer spectroscopy shows an anomaly of Fe-containing particles in both K-Pg boundary sections: jarosite at mid-Waipara and goethite at Compressor Creek. This anomaly coincides with a turnover in vegetation indicated by an interval dominated by fern spores and extinction of key pollen species in both sections. In addition to the terrestrial floristic changes, the mid-Waipara section reveals a turnover in the dinoflagellate assemblages and the appearance of global earliest Danian index species. Geochemical data reveal relatively small iridium enrichments in the boundary layers of 321 pg/g at mid-Waipara and 176 pg/g at Compressor Creek. Unradiogenic 187Os/188Os values of the boundary clay reveal the presence of a significant extraterrestrial component. We interpret the accumulation of Fe nano-phases at the boundary as originating from both the impactor and the crystalline basement target rock. The goethite and jarosite are interpreted as secondary phases formed by weathering and diagenesis. The primary phases were probably controlled by the initial composition of the vapor plume and condensation kinetics rather than condensation thermodynamics. This investigation indicates that identification of Fe in nano-phases by Mössbauer spectroscopy is an accurate and cost-effective method for identifying impact event horizons and it efficiently complements widely used biostratigraphic and geochemical methods.V. Vajda acknowledges the financial support provided by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences through the Knut & Alice Wallenbergs Foundation and from the Crafoord Foundation. P.S. Willumsen acknowledges financial support from the Carlsberg Foundation no.2008_01_0404

Early Evolution of Modern Birds Structured by Global Forest Collapse at the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

The fossil record and recent molecular phylogenies support an extraordinary early-Cenozoic radiation of crown birds (Neornithes) after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction [1–3 ]. However, questions remain regarding the mechanisms underlying the survival of the deepest lineages within crown birds across the K-Pg boundary, particularly since this global catastrophe eliminated even the closest stem-group relatives of Neornithes [4 ]. Here, ancestral state reconstructions of neornithine ecology reveal a strong bias toward taxa exhibiting predominantly non-arboreal lifestyles across the K-Pg, with multiple convergent transitions toward predominantly arboreal ecologies later in the Paleocene and Eocene. By contrast, ecomorphological inferences indicate predominantly arboreal lifestyles among enantiornithines, the most diverse and widespread Mesozoic avialans [5–7 ]. Global paleobotanical and palynological data show that the K-Pg Chicxulub impact triggered widespread destruction of forests [8, 9 ]. We suggest that ecological filtering due to the temporary loss of significant plant cover across the K-Pg boundary selected against any flying dinosaurs (Avialae [10 ]) committed to arboreal ecologies, resulting in a predominantly non-arboreal postextinction neornithine avifauna composed of totalclade Palaeognathae, Galloanserae, and terrestrial total-clade Neoaves that rapidly diversified into the broad range of avian ecologies familiar today. The explanation proposed here provides a unifying hypothesis for the K-Pg-associated mass extinction of arboreal stem birds, as well as for the post-K-Pg radiation of arboreal crown birds. It also provides a baseline hypothesis to be further refined pending the discovery of additional neornithine fossils from the Latest Cretaceous and earliest Paleogene.Also supported by:- a 50th Anniversary Prize Fellowship at the University of Bath.- a Smithsonian NMNH Deep Time Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship.- NSF grants DGE-1650441 and DEB-1700786.</p

Arctic ice and the ecological rise of the dinosaurs

Abundant lake ice-rafted debris in Late Triassic and earliest Jurassic strata of the Junggar Basin of northwestern China (paleolatitude ~71°N) indicates that freezing winter temperatures typified the forested Arctic, despite a persistence of extremely high levels of atmospheric Pco2 (partial pressure of CO2). Phylogenetic bracket analysis shows that non-avian dinosaurs were primitively insulated, enabling them to access rich deciduous and evergreen Arctic vegetation, even under freezing winter conditions. Transient but intense volcanic winters associated with massive eruptions and lowered light levels led to the end-Triassic mass extinction (201.6 Ma) on land, decimating all medium- to large-sized nondinosaurian, noninsulated continental reptiles. In contrast, insulated dinosaurs were already well adapted to cold temperatures, and not only survived but also underwent a rapid adaptive radiation and ecological expansion in the Jurassic, taking over regions formerly dominated by large noninsulated reptiles

Episodic river flooding events revealed by palynological assemblages in Jurassic deposits of the Brent Group, North Sea

Spore and pollen (sporomorph) assemblages from Middle Jurassic marine deposits of the Brent Group in the northern North Sea are investigated to assess temporal and spatial variations in vegetation and depositional processes. Four wells were sampled for palynology from the Penguins Cluster and the Don North East fields through the Rannoch Formation shoreface succession. Hyperpycnite deposits occur throughout, but are concentrated within the lower part of the section. These are expressed by sand-prone beds displaying waxing and waning current motifs, normally graded muddy beds and structureless mudstones. Hyperpycnal/hypopycnal deposits resulting from episodic river flooding represent important sedimentary features as they may be preserved below fair weather wave base in more offshore settings and potentially be the only record of the former presence of a nearby river mouth. The hyperpycnites typically contain abundant Botryoccocus spp., Amorphous Organic Matter (AOM) and hinterland sporomorph taxa with relatively few marine components compared to associated marine shoreface facies. Variations in palynofacies assemblages and Botryococcus spp. abundances indicate frequent river mouth avulsion. Ordination of samples using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) indicates that shoreface samples of the sampled wells are relatively distinct, but hyperpycnite samples are highly similar regardless of their sampled well. This suggests that depositional processes and spore/pollen sources (i.e. catchment zones) were similar among hyperpycnite events across different wells. Abundant bisaccate pollen, Botryococcus spp. and AOM within interpreted hyperpycnites suggest sediment mixing along the fluvial drainage path during flooding events. The terrestrial signature of hyperpycnite sporomorph assemblages demonstrates that underflows remained coherent as they descended the shoreface profile with little turbulent mixing with ambient marine waters. Sporomorph assemblages display few large changes through time suggesting vegetation on the adjacent coastal plain was relatively static through the studied interval