Metal-induced malformations in early Palaeozoic plankton are harbingers of mass extinction

Thijs R. A. Vandenbroucke (), Poul Emsbo, Axel Munnecke, Nicolas Nuns, Ludovic Duponchel, Kevin Lepot, Melesio Quijada, Florentin Paris, Thomas Servais and Wolfgang Kiessling
Additional contact information
Thijs R. A. Vandenbroucke: Unité Evolution, Ecologie et Paléontologie—UMR 8198, CNRS/Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies
Poul Emsbo: U.S. Geological Survey, Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center, Denver Federal Center
Axel Munnecke: Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, GeoZentrum Nordbayern
Nicolas Nuns: IMMCL Chevreul, Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies, Cité Scientifique
Ludovic Duponchel: LASIR—UMR 8516, CNRS/Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies, Cité Scientifique
Kevin Lepot: Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences—UMR 8187, CNRS/Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies
Melesio Quijada: Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences—UMR 8187, CNRS/Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies
Florentin Paris: Géosciences Rennes—UMR 6118, CNRS/Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu
Thomas Servais: Unité Evolution, Ecologie et Paléontologie—UMR 8198, CNRS/Université de Lille—Sciences et Technologies
Wolfgang Kiessling: Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, GeoZentrum Nordbayern

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Glacial episodes have been linked to Ordovician–Silurian extinction events, but cooling itself may not be solely responsible for these extinctions. Teratological (malformed) assemblages of fossil plankton that correlate precisely with the extinction events can help identify alternate drivers of extinction. Here we show that metal poisoning may have caused these aberrant morphologies during a late Silurian (Pridoli) event. Malformations coincide with a dramatic increase of metals (Fe, Mo, Pb, Mn and As) in the fossils and their host rocks. Metallic toxins are known to cause a teratological response in modern organisms, which is now routinely used as a proxy to assess oceanic metal contamination. Similarly, our study identifies metal-induced teratology as a deep-time, palaeobiological monitor of palaeo-ocean chemistry. The redox-sensitive character of enriched metals supports emerging ‘oceanic anoxic event’ models. Our data suggest that spreading anoxia and redox cycling of harmful metals was a contributing kill mechanism during these devastating Ordovician–Silurian palaeobiological events.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8966 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms8966

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8966

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().