Abstract
The middle Cambrian (Miaolingian Series, Wuliuan Stage) Mantou Formation Member III in the Dengfeng area, western Henan, China provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between suspension feeders and sedimentary substrates in the early Phanerozoic hydrodynamic high-energy environment. Its strata record abundant vertical burrows in the easily migrated carbonate sediments of calcarenitic shoals or oolitic beaches. Three types of piperock ichnofabrics are identified: Skolithos ichnofabric, Arenicolites ichnofabric and Skolithos-Arenicolites ichnofabric. Bedding plane expressions of these ichnofabrics show that there is a spatial distribution pattern dominated by segregated distribution between individual burrows; this pattern is shown to be genuine through nearest neighbor and spatial point process analyses. These characteristics not only indicate that burrows were constructed by contemporaneous suspension feeders, but also reflect the selection and adaptation of suspension feeders to strong hydrodynamics and mobile substrates. In addition, the interspecific competition caused by the heterogeneity of nutrients is one of the determinants of the spatial distribution pattern of vertical burrows. As ecosystem engineers, these suspension feeders significantly transform landforms, create pressure gradients and accelerate geochemical cycles, which may further promote biodiversity in benthic organisms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allport HA, Davies NS, Shillito AP, Mitchell EG, Herron ST (2021) Non-palimpsested crowded Skolithos ichnofabrics in a Carboniferous tidal rhythmite: disentangling ecological signatures from the spatio-temporal bias of outcrop. Sedimentology 2021:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12947
Alpert SP (1974) Systematic review of the genus Skolithos. J Paleontol 48(4):661–669. https://doi.org/10.2307/1303217
Arnosti C, Durkin S, Jeffrey WH (2005) Patterns of extracellular enzyme activities among pelagic marine microbial communities: implications for cycling of dissolved organic carbon. Aquat Micro Ecol 38:135–145. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame038135
Bai WB, Qi YA, Guo HY, Wang M, Qing GS (2018) Storm deposits and relevant trace fossils from the Cambrian Series 2 Xinji Formation in Lushan area, Henan Province. J Palaeogeog 20(4):365–376 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Bottjer DJ (2010) The Cambrian substrate revolution and early evolution of the phyla. J Earth Sci 21:21–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-010-0160-7
Buatois LA, Mángano MG (2012) The trace-fossil record of organism-matground interactions in space and time. In: Noffke N, Chafetz HS (eds) Microbial mats in Siliciclastic Depositional Systems through Time, vol 101. SEPM Spec Pub, Tulsa, Oklahoma, pp 15–28
Buatois LA, Mángano MG (2013) Ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity: significance and caveats. Lethaia 46(3):281–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/let.12018
Butterfield NJ (2009) Oxygen, animals and oceanic ventilation: an alternative view. Geobiology 7:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4669.2009.00188.x
Butterfield NJ (2011) Animals and the invention of the phanerozoic earth system. Trends Eco Evol 26(2):81–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.11.012
Clark PT, Evans FC (1954) Distance to nearest neighbour as a measure of spatial relationships in populations. Ecology 35:445–453. https://doi.org/10.2307/1931034
D’Andrea AF, Aller RC, Lopez GR (2002) Organic matter flux and reactivity on a South Carolina sandflat: the impacts of porewater advection and macrobiological structures. Limnol Oceanogr 47:1056–1070. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069025
Dale MRT, Powell RD (2001) A new method for characterizing point patterns in plant ecology. J Veg Sci 12:597–608. https://doi.org/10.2307/3236899
Davies NS, Shillito AP (2018) Incomplete but intricately detailed: the inevitable preservation of true substrates in a time-deficient stratigraphic record. Geology 46(8):679–682. https://doi.org/10.1130/G45206.1
Davies NS, Shillito AP (2021) True substrates: the exceptional resolution and unexceptional preservation of deep time snapshots on bedding surfaces. Sedimentology 68(7):3307–3356. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12900
Davies NS, Herringshaw LG, Raine RJ (2009) Controls on trace fossil diversity in an Early Cambrian epeiric sea: new perspective from northwest Scotland. Lethaia 42:17–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.2008.00130.x
Davies NS, Shillito AP, Slater BJ, Liu AG, McMahon WJ (2019) Evolutionary synchrony of Earth’s biosphere and sedimentary-stratigraphic record. Earth-Sci Rev 201:102979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102979
de Beer D, Wenzhöfer F, Ferdelman TG, Boehme SE, Huettel M, van Beusekom JEE, Böttcher ME, Musat N, Dubilier N (2005) Transport and mineralization rates in Nort Sea sandy intertidal sediments, Sylt-Rømø Basin. Wadden Sea Limnol Oceanogr 50(1):113–127. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2005.50.1.0113
Desjardins PR, Mángano MG, Buatois LA, Pratt BR (2010) Skolithos pipe rock and associated ichnofabrics in the Fort Mountain Formation, Gog Group: colonization trends and environmental controls in an Early Cambrian subtidal sandbar complex. Lethaia 43:507–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.2009.00214.x
Dornbos SQ, Bottjer DJ (2000) The evolutionary paleoecology of the earliest echinoderms: Helicoplacoids and the Cambrian substrate revolution. Geology 28(9):839–842. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2000)282.0.CO;2
Droser ML (1991) Ichnofabric of the Paleozoic Skolithos ichnofacies and the nature and distribution of the Skolithos piperock. Palaios 6:316–325. https://doi.org/10.2307/3514911
Droser ML, Bottjer DJ (1988) Trends in depth and extent of bioturbation in Cambrian carbonate marine environments, western United States. Geology 16(3):233–236. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1988)016%3c0233:TIDAEO%3e2.3.CO;2
Droser ML, Bottjer DJ (1989) Ordovician increase in extent and depth of bioturbation: Implications for understanding early Paleozoic ecospace utilization. Geology 17(9):850–852. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1989)017%3c0850:OIIEAD%3e2.3.CO;2
Fang SH, Hang YP, Luo QQ, Lv XM (2011) Species diversity and ecological characteristics of polychaetes in Meizhou Bay. J Oceanogr Taiwan Strait 30(3):419–429 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Fang L, Liu JB, Zhan RB (2012) Temporal distribution of piperocks in Cambrian and Ordovician: a coevolutionary process with changes of paleoenvironment. Sci China Earth Sci 55:26–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-011-4353-4
Feldman KL, Armstrong DA, Dumbauld BR, DeWitt TH, Doty DC (2000) Oysters, crabs, and burrowing shrimp: review of an environmental conflict over aquatic resources and pesticide use in Washington State’s (USA) coastal estuaries. Estuaries 23(2):141–176. https://doi.org/10.2307/1352824
Feng ZZ (1990) Lithologic paleogeography of early paleozoic of the North China platform. Geological Publishing House, Beijing (in Chinese with English abstract)
Hallam A, Swett K (1966a) Trace fossils from the Lower Cambrian Pipe Rock of the north-west Highlands. Scott J Geol 2(1):101–106. https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg02010101
Hallam A, Swett K (1966b) Trace fossils from the Lower Cambrian Pipe Rock of the north-west Highlands. Scott J Geol. https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg02010101
Huettel M, Webster IT (2001) Porewater flow in permeable sediments. In: Boudreau BP, Jørgensen BB (eds) The benthic boundary layer: transport processes and biogeochemistry. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 144–179
Johnson RG (1959) Spatial distribution of Phoronopsis viridis Hilton. Science 129(3357):1221. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.129.3357.1221
Knaust D (2021) Rosselichnidae ifam.nov.:burrows with concentric, spiral or eccentric lamination. Palaeontology 2021:1–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1367
Knaust D, Curran HA, Dronov AV (2012) Shallow-marine carbonates, trace fossils as indicators of sedimentary environments, developments in sedimentology, vol 64. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 705–750. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53813-0.00023-X
Knaust D, Thomas RDK, Curran HA (2018) Skolithos linearis Haldeman, 1840 at its early Cambrian type locality, Chickies Rock, Pennsylvania: analysis and designation of a neotype. Earth-Sci Rev 185(2018):15–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.05.009
Lenton TM, Boyle RA, Poulton SW, Shields-Zhou GA, Butterfield NJ (2014) Co-evolution of eukaryotes and ocean oxygenation in the Neoproterozoic era. Nat Geosci 7(4):257–265. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2108
Levinton JS (1972) Spatial distribution of Nucula proxima Say (protobranchia): an experimental approach. Biol Bull 143(1):175–183. https://doi.org/10.2307/1540337
Li C, Jin CS (2015) Atmosphere-ocean oxygen levels and biotic explosion in the Early Cambrian. B Miner Petrol Geochem 34(3):501–508. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1007-2802.2015.03.006 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Liu YH, Wang JP, Zhang HQ, Du FJ (1990) Recent advances in the study of the Cambrian in Henan province. Reg Geol China 3:215–221 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Logan GA, Hayes J, Hieshima GB, Summons RE (1995) Terminal Proterozoic reorganization of biogeochemical cycles. Nature 376(6535):53–56. https://doi.org/10.1038/376053a0
Mángano MG, Buatois LA (2014) Decoupling of body-plan diversifi cation and ecological structuring during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: evolutionary and geobiological feedbacks. Proc R Soc B 281:20140038. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0038
Mángano MG, Buatois LA, Hofmann R, Shinaq OE (2013) Exploring the aftermath of the Cambrian explosion: the evolutionary significance of marginal- to shallow-marine ichnofaunas of Jordan. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 374:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.05.029
McIlroy D, Garton M (2010) Realistic interpretation of ichnofabrics and palaeoecology of the pipe-rock biotope. Lethaia 43(3):420–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.2009.00199.x
McIlroy D, Logan GA (1999) The impact of bioturbation on infaunal ecology and evolution during the Proterozoic-Cambrian transition. Palaios 14(1):58–72. https://doi.org/10.2307/3515361
Meng X, Ge M, Tucker ME (1997) Sequence stratigraphy, sea-level changes and depositional systems in the Cambro-Ordovician of the North China carbonate platform. Sed Geol 114(1):189–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0037-0738(97)00073-0
Mermillod-Blondin F, Rosenberg R (2006) Ecosystem engineering: the impact of bioturbation on biogeochemical processes in marine and freshwater benthic habitats. Aquat Sci 68:434–442. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-006-0858-x
Mitchell EG, Butterfield NJ (2018) Spatial analyses of Ediacaran communities at Mistaken Point. Paleobiology 44(1):40–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2017.35
Peach BN, Horne J (1884) Report on the geology of the North-West of Sutherland. Nature 31(785):31–35. https://doi.org/10.1038/031031a0
Pei F, Wang JP, Wang SY, Ba Y, Chen RB (2012) The Middle Cambrian lithofacies palaeogeography in Henan Province. J Palaeogeo 14(4):423–436 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Pemberton SG, Frey RW (1984) Quantitative methods in ichnology: spatial distribution among populations. Lethaia 17(1):33–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.1984.tb00663.x
Peng SC (2009) The newly-developed Cambrian biostratigraphic succession and chronostratigraphic scheme for South China. Chinese Sci B 54(22):4161–4170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0667-4
Pinn EH, James R, Atkinson A, Rogerson A (1998) Particle size selectivity and resource partitioning in five species of Thalassinidea (Crustacea: Decapoda). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 169:243–250. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps169243
Pollard JE, Goldring R, Buck SG (1993) Ichnofabrics containing Ophiomorpha: significance in shallow-water facies interpretation. J Geol Soc London 150:149–164. https://doi.org/10.1144/gsjgs.150.1.0149
Posey MH, Dumbauld BR, Armstrong DA (1991) Effects of a burrowing mud shrimp, Upogebia pugettensis (Dana), on abundances of macro-infauna. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 148:283–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0981(91)90088-e
Qi YA, Hu B, Zhang GC, Gong YM (2007) Ichnofabrics and their environmental interpretation from Middle Triassic Youfangzhang Fromation, Jiyuan, Western Henan Province. Acta Sediment Sin 03:372–379 (in Chinese with English abstract)
Seilacher A (1999) Biomat-related lifestyles in the Precambrian. Palaios 14:86–93. https://doi.org/10.2307/3515363
Seilacher A, Pflüger F (1994) From biomats to benthic agriculture: a biohistoric revolution. In: Krumbein WE, Peterson DM, Stal LJ (eds) Biostabilization of sediments. Bibliotheks und Informationssystem der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, pp 97–105
Sepkoski JJ Jr, Miller AI (1985) Evolutionary faunas and the distribution of Paleozoic benthic marine communities in space and time. In: Valentine JW (ed) Phanerozoic diversity patterns: profiles in macroevolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton and New York, pp 153–180
Shahkarami S, Mángano MG, Buatois LA (2017) Discriminating ecological and evolutionary controls during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: trace fossils from the Soltanieh Formation of northern Iran. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 476:15–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.03.012
Skoog SY, Venn C, Simpson EL (1994) Distribution of Diopatra Cuprea across modern tidal flats: implications for Skolithos. Palaios 9:188–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/3515105
Stief P (2013) Stimulation of microbial nitrogen cycling in aquatic ecosystems by benthic macrofauna: mechanisms and environmental implications. Biogeosciences 10(12):7829–7846. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-7829-2013
Suchanek TH (1983) Control of seagrass communities and sediment distribution by Callianassa (Crustacea, Thalassinidea) bioturbation. J Mar Res 41(2):281–298. https://doi.org/10.1357/002224083788520216
Waldbusser GG, Marinelli RL (2006) Macrofaunal modification of porewater advection: role of species function, species interaction, and kinetics. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 311(8):217–231. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps311217
Waldbusser GG, Marinelli RL, Whitlatch RB, Visscher PT (2004) The effects of infaunal biodiversity on biogeochemistry of coastal marine sediments. Limnol Oceanogr 49:1482–1492. https://doi.org/10.2307/3597419
Wright VP, Cherns L (2016) Leaving no stone unturned: the feedback between increased biotic diversity and early diagenesis during the Ordovician. J Geol Soc 173(2):241–244. https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2015-043
Zhang XY, Dai MY, Wang M, Qi YA (2019) Calcified coccoid from Cambrian Miaolingian: revealing the potential cellular structure of Epiphyton. PLoS ONE 14(3):e0213695. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213695
Zhang T, Li YF, Fan TL, Lash GG (2020) Marine carbon and sulfur cycling across the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in Tarim Block and its implications for paleoenvironmental changes. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 560(2020):100011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110011
Zhang YX, Qi YA, Liu BC, Dai MY, Wang M, Li D (2021) Alternation of microbiogenic structures and metazoan bioturbated structures from the Cambrian Miaoling Series of Henan. Acta Sediment Sin. https://doi.org/10.14027/j.issn.1000-0550.2021.130
Ziebis W, Forster S, Huettel M, Jørgensen BB (1996) Complex burrows of the mud shrimp Callianassa truncata and their geochemical impact on the sea bed. Nature 382:619–622. https://doi.org/10.1038/382619a0
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41872111), the National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (No. 41902113 and 41902115), the Key Scientific Research Projects in Colleges and Universities of Henan Province (No. 21A170013) and the Key Science and Technology Research Project of Henan Province (No. 202102310336). We thank Ulrich Riller and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: YQ; data curation: BL; formal analyses: DL, MD; funding acquisition: YQ, DL, MD; invertigation: BL; methodology: DL; project administration: YQ; resources: WH, JL; software: MW; supervision: MW; validation; YQ; visualization; DL; roles/writing-original draft: BL; writing-review & editing: DL, YQ; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, B., Li, D., Wang, M. et al. Piperock ichnofabrics from western Henan, China: spatial distribution pattern and environmental controls on middle Cambrian carbonates. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 111, 1609–1630 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-022-02195-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-022-02195-0