Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Carbon isotope signatures of Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian organic fossils from Siberian and East European platforms

  • Published:
Paleontological Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Study of carbon isotopic composition of micro- and macrofossils and dissipated sedimentary matter (kerogens) extracted by acid maceration from the clay shales from three Riphean, Vendian, and Cambrian sections of the Siberian and East European platforms revealed identical δ13Corg values for fossils from the same sample. Such similarity of carbon isotope signatures in the remains of various organisms (algae, animals, microbial mats) could be caused by the similar way of carbon isotope fractionation by marine and continental organisms in the late Precambrian and Early Cambrian.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Afanasieva, M.S., Burzin, M.B., Mikhailova, M.V., and Kuzmenko, Yu.T., Accumulation conditions of potential oil source rocks, Geol. Nefti i gaza, 1995, no. 4, pp. 42–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartley, J.K., Semikhatov, M.A., Kaufman, A.J., Pope, M.C., Knoll, A.H., and Jacobsen, S.B., Global events across the Mesoproterozoic-Neoproterozoic boundary: C and Sr isotopic evidence from Siberia, Precambrian Res., 2001, vol. 111, nos. 1–4, pp. 165–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Compston, W., Sambridge, M.S., Reinfrank, R.F., Moczydłowska, M., Vidal, G., and Claesson, S., Numerical ages of volcanic rocks and the earliest faunal zone within the Late Precambrian of east Poland, J. Geol. Soc., (London, U. K.), 1995, vol. 152, no. 4, pp. 599–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeNiro, M.J. and Epstein, S., Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1978, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 495–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson, P.G. and Altermann, W., Evolution of the hydrosphere and atmosphere: 5.1. Introduction, in The Precambrian Earth: Tempos and Events, Eriksson, P.G., Altermann, W., Nelson, D.R., Mueller, W.U., and Catuneanu, O., Eds., Dev. Precambrian Geol., vol. 12, Elsevier: Amsterdam, 2004, pp. 359–507.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Felitsyn, S.B., Vidal, G., and Moczydłowska, M., Trace elements and Sr and C isotopic signatures in Late Neoproterozoic and earliest Cambrian sedimentary organic matter from siliciclastic successions in the East European Platform, Geol. Mag., 1998, vol. 135, no. 4, pp. 537–551.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Felitsyn, S.B., Gold in Vendian-Cambrian organic macrofossils of the East European Platform, Lithol. Miner. Resour., 2008, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 542–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fry, B. and Sherr, E.B., δ13C measurements as indicators of carbon flow in marine and freshwater ecosystems, Contrib. Mar. Sci., 1984, vol. 27, pp. 13–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galimov, E.M., Priroda biologicheskogo fraktsionirovaniyaizotopov (The Mechanism of Biological Fractionation of Isotopes), Moscow: Nauka, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galimov, E.M., The causes of the global variations of carbon isotopic composition in the biosphere, Geochem. Int., 1999, vol. 37, no. 8, pp. 699–713.

    Google Scholar 

  • German, T.N., Organicheskii mir milliard let nazad (Organic World One Billion Years Ago), Leningrad: Nauka, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • German, T.N. and Podkovyrov, V.N., The role of cyanobacteria in the assemblage of the Lakhanda Microbiota, Paleontol. J., 2011, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 320–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ginzburg, A.I. and Tolstikhina, M.M., Genesis of organic matter from the Lower Cambrian laminarite clays, Sov. Geol., 1960, no. 1, pp. 126–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gnilovskaya, M.B., Vendotaenids, in Paleontologiya verkhnedokembriiskikh i kembriiskikh otlozhenii Vostochno-Evropeiskoi platformy (Paleontology of the Upper Precambrian and Cambrian Sediments of the East European Platform), Keller, B.M. and Rozanov, A.Yu., Eds., Moscow: Nauka, 1979, pp. 39–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gnilovskaya, M.B., Ishchenko, A.A., Kolesnikov, Ch.M., Korenchuk, L.V., and Udal’tsov, A.P., Vendotenidy Vostochno-Evropeiskoi platformy (Vendotaenids of the East European Platform), Gnilovskaya, M.B., Ed., Leningrad: Nauka, 1988.

  • Hayes, J.M., Kaplan, I.R., and Wedeking, K.W., Precambrian Organic Geochemistry, Preservation of the Record, in Earth’s Earliest Bioshere: Its Origin and Evolution, Shopf, J.W., Ed., Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983, pp. 93–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, A.J. and Xiao Shu-hai, High CO2 levels in the Proterozoic atmosphere estimated from analyses of individual microfossils, Nature, 2003, vol. 425, no. 6955, pp. 279–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kodina, L.A. and Galimov, E.M., Formation of carbon isotope composition of organic matter of “humic” and “sapropelic” types in marine sediments, Geokhimiya, 1984, no. 11, pp. 1742–1756.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lein, A.Yu., Pimenov, N.V., Savvichev, A.S., Pavlova, G.A., Vogt, P.R., Bogdanov, Yu.A., Sagalevich, A.M., and Ivanov, M.V., Methane as a source of organic matter and carbon dioxide of carbonates at a cold seep in the Norway Sea, Geochem. Int., 2000, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 232–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, G.A., Hayes, J.M., Hieshima, G.B., and Summons, R.E., Terminal Proterozoic reorganization of biogeochemical cycles, Nature, 1995, vol. 376, no. 6535, pp. 53–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, N.W., Grazhdankin, D.V., Bowring, S.A., Evans, D.A.D., Fedonkin, M.A., and Kirschvink, J.L., Age of Neoproterozoic bilaterian body and trace fossils, White Sea, Russia: Implications for metazoan evolution, Science, 2000, vol. 288, no. 5467, pp. 841–845.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moczydłowska, M., Acritarch Biostratigraphy of the Lower Cambrian and the Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary in Southeastern Poland, Fossils and Strata, vol. 29, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrov, P.Yu. and Semikhatov, M.A., Structure and environmental conditions of a transgressive Upper Riphean complex: Miroedikha Formation of the Turukhansk Uplift, Siberia, Lithol. Miner. Resour., 1997, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 11–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozanov, A.Yu., Bacterial paleontology, sedimentogenesis, and early stages of evolution of the biosphere, in Sovremennye problemy geologii (Modern Problems of Geology), Gavrilov, Yu.O. and Khutorskoi, M.D., Eds., Tr. Geol. Inst., Ross. Akad. Nauk, vol. 56, Moscow: Nauka, 2004, pp. 448–462.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rozanov, A.Yu., Astafieva, M.M., Vrevsky, A.B., Alfimova, N.A., and Matrenichev, V.A., Microfossils of the Early Precambrian continental weathering crusts of the Fennoscandian Shield, Otechest. Geol., 2008, no. 3, pp. 83–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sochava, A.V., Korenchuk, L.V., Pirrus, E.A., and Felitsyn, S.B., Geochemistry of the Upper Vendian sediments of the Russian Platform, Litol. Polezn. Iskop., 1992, no. 2, pp. 71–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sochava, A.V., Podkovyrov, V.N., and Felitsyn, S.B., The Late Precambrian stage in compositional evolution of terrigenic rocks, Stratigr. Geol. Korrelyatsiya, 1994, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokolov, B.S., The oldest Pogonophora, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1967, vol. 177, no. 1, pp. 201–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, H., Vidal, G., Moczydłowska, M., and Pacześna, J., Carbon isotope geochemistry and palaeontology of Neoprotrozoic to Early Cambrian siliciclastic successions in the East European Platform, Poland, Geol. Mag., 1997, vol. 134, no. 1, pp. 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thode, H.G., Shima, M., Rees, C.E., and Krishnamurty, K.V., Carbon-13 isotope effects in systems containing carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, carbonate, and metal ions, Can. J. Chem., 1965, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 582–595.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uspenskii, V.A., Gorskaya, A.I., and Chernysheva, A.S., Nature of Laminarites from Cambrian Clays in the Baltic Region, Tr. Vses. Nauchno-Issled. Geol. Razved. Inst., no. 57, Leningrad: 1951, pp. 109–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wada Eitaro, Kabaya Yuko, and Kurihara Yasushi, Stable isotopic structure of aquatic ecosystems, J. Biosci. (New Delhi, India), 1993, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 483–499.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wada Eitaro and Yoshioka Takahito, Isotope biogeochemistry of several aquatic ecosystems, in Osnovnye napravleniya geokhimii. K 100-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya akademika A.P. Vinogradova (Main Trends in Geochemistry: To the 100th Anniversary of Academician A.P. Vinogradov), Galimov, E.M., Ed., Moscow: Nauka, 1995, pp. 197–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watanabe Yumiko, Martini, J.E.J., and Ohmoto Hiroshi, Geochemical evidence for terrestrial ecosystems 2.6 billion years ago, Nature, 2000, vol. 408, no. 6812, pp. 574–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watanabe Yumiko, Stewart, B.W., and Ohmoto Hiroshi, Organic and carbonate-rich soil formation ∼2.6 billion years ago at Shagen, East Transvaal district, South Africa, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 2004, vol. 68, pp. 2129–2151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Precambrian Geology and Geochronology, Russian Academy of Sciences, nab. Makarova 2, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

    S. B. Felitsyn & T. N. German

Authors
  1. S. B. Felitsyn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T. N. German
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. B. Felitsyn.

Additional information

Original Russian Text © S.B. Felitsyn, T.N. German, 2015, published in Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, No. 3, pp. 3–12.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Felitsyn, S.B., German, T.N. Carbon isotope signatures of Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian organic fossils from Siberian and East European platforms. Paleontol. J. 49, 221–229 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030115030053

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030115030053

Keywords

Search

Navigation