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Girvanella-coated grains from Cambrian oolitic limestone

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Abstract

Oolites from the Cambrian carbonate sequences of China were analyzed using standard petrographic methods. Thin-section examination reveals that Girvanella, probably representing calcified sheath of a filamentous cyanobacterium, is well preserved in carbonate grains with little diagenetic alterations. The carbonate grains preserved with Girvanella may constitute an independent category here, since Girvanella was previously rarely known in carbonate grains, especially in ooids. According to the microstructures, these carbonate grains can be divided into two types: Girvanella oncoids are ooid-sized grains composed entirely of a meshwork of Girvanella coating a poorly defined nucleus; Girvanella ooids in samples can be further subdivided into two types, Girvanella-core ooids and Girvanella-cortex ooids, according to the microstructures and the distribution of Girvanella in the ooids. Girvanella-core ooids are characterized by a well-defined Girvanella nucleus, which was probably a rounded fragment of the former cyanobacterial buildup. Girvanella-cortex ooids, in contrast, are characterized by the alternations of Girvanella laminae and the micrite laminae. Observations of this study provide direct evidence that microbes, most likely cyanobacteria, were involved in the formation of coated carbonate grains and influenced their microstructures.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants: 40872004 and 40925005) and the “Sanqin Scholar” project of the Shaanxi Authority for financial support. We thank Brian Pratt and the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. We thank Franz Theodor Füsich for his suggestions concerning English expression and written style.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Liu & Xingliang Zhang

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  1. Wei Liu
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  2. Xingliang Zhang
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Correspondence to Xingliang Zhang.

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Liu, W., Zhang, X. Girvanella-coated grains from Cambrian oolitic limestone. Facies 58, 779–787 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10347-012-0294-4

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