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Earliest Triassic microbialites in the South China block and other areas: controls on their growth and distribution

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Abstract

Earliest Triassic microbialites (ETMs) and inorganic carbonate crystal fans formed after the end-Permian mass extinction (ca. 251.4 Ma) within the basal Triassic Hindeodus parvus conodont zone. ETMs are distinguished from rarer, and more regional, subsequent Triassic microbialites. Large differences in ETMs between northern and southern areas of the South China block suggest geographic provinces, and ETMs are most abundant throughout the equatorial Tethys Ocean with further geographic variation. ETMs occur in shallow-marine shelves in a superanoxic stratified ocean and form the only widespread Phanerozoic microbialites with structures similar to those of the Cambro-Ordovician, and briefly after the latest Ordovician, Late Silurian and Late Devonian extinctions. ETMs disappeared long before the mid-Triassic biotic recovery, but it is not clear why, if they are interpreted as disaster taxa. In general, ETM occurrence suggests that microbially mediated calcification occurred where upwelled carbonate-rich anoxic waters mixed with warm aerated surface waters, forming regional dysoxia, so that extreme carbonate supersaturation and dysoxic conditions were both required for their growth. Long-term oceanic and atmospheric changes may have contributed to a trigger for ETM formation. In equatorial western Pangea, the earliest microbialites are late Early Triassic, but it is possible that ETMs could exist in western Pangea, if well-preserved earliest Triassic facies are discovered in future work.

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Acknowledgements

Work by SC-S, P-YC, SK and FQ in Guizhou is supported by French Eclipse 2 and CNRS-PICS programmes. Work by SK, XM and LY in Sichuan/Chongqing is supported by China NNSF grant 40572069. We thank Wang Wei for providing the thin section illustrated in Fig. 9. SK thanks Brad Cramer, Robert Riding and Richard Twitchett for discussions. Two anonymous referees are thanked for their valuable comments that have led to significant improvements of this paper. We are grateful to Wang Hongbo, Guo Yi, Guo Yong, Yu Youyi and Gu Songzhu for their help in China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK

    Steve Kershaw

  2. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, 39, East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Yue Li & Xinan Mu

  3. CNRS, UMR 5143 “Paléobiodiversité et paléoenvironnements”, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, T55-65, E.5, case 117, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Sylvie Crasquin-Soleau & Pierre-Yves Collin

  4. Geosciences University, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Qinglai Feng

  5. Experimental Techniques Centre, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK

    Alan Reynolds

  6. CASP, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, West Building, 181a Huntington Rd, Cambridge, CB3 0DH, UK

    Li Guo

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Kershaw, S., Li, Y., Crasquin-Soleau, S. et al. Earliest Triassic microbialites in the South China block and other areas: controls on their growth and distribution. Facies 53, 409–425 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-007-0105-5

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