Modern freshwater microbialite analogues for ancient dendritic reef structures

Bernard Laval, Sherry L. Cady (), John C. Pollack, Christopher P. McKay, John S. Bird, John P. Grotzinger, Derek C. Ford and Harry R. Bohm
Additional contact information
Bernard Laval: School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University
Sherry L. Cady: Portland State University
John C. Pollack: Forest Sciences, Nelson Forest Region
Christopher P. McKay: NASA Ames Research Centre
John S. Bird: School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University
John P. Grotzinger: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Derek C. Ford: McMaster University
Harry R. Bohm: School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University

Nature, 2000, vol. 407, issue 6804, 626-629

Abstract: Abstract Microbialites are organosedimentary structures that can be constructed by a variety of metabolically distinct taxa1. Consequently, microbialite structures abound in the fossil record, although the exact nature of the biogeochemical processes that produced them is often unknown2. One such class of ancient calcareous structures3,4,5, Epiphyton and Girvanella, appear in great abundance during the Early Cambrian. Together with Archeocyathids, stromatolites and thrombolites, they formed major Cambrian reef belts. To a large extent, Middle to Late Cambrian reefs are similar to Precambrian reefs6, with the exception that the latter, including terminal Proterozoic reefs7, do not contain Epiphyton or Girvanella. Here we report the discovery in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia, Canada, of a distinctive assemblage of freshwater calcite microbialites, some of which display microstructures similar to the fabrics displayed by Epiphyton and Girvanella. The morphologies of the modern microbialites vary with depth, and dendritic microstructures of the deep water (>30 m) mounds indicate that they may be modern analogues for the ancient calcareous structures. These microbialites thus provide an opportunity to study the biogeochemical interactions that produce fabrics similar to those of some enigmatic Early Cambrian reef structures.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35036579 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:407:y:2000:i:6804:d:10.1038_35036579

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

DOI: 10.1038/35036579

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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