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Systematic occurrences of malformed (teratological) acritarchs in the run-up of Early Palaeozoic δ13C isotope excursions

Munnecke A, Delabroye A, Servais T, Vandenbroucke TR, Vecoli M (2012)

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Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2012

Journal

Pages Range: 137-146

URI: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018212001241

DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.02.029

Open Access Link: http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0031018212001241/1-s2.0-S0031018212001241-main.pdf?_tid=a523c0be-6631-11e7-a312-00000aacb35e&acdnat=1499775086_b038a935f0bc71aaea7a16acd6bf4867

Abstract

The Late Ordovician and Silurian are characterised by several strong, global positive δC excursions. Some of them exceed +5‰ and thus belong to the strongest perturbations of the carbon cycle in the Phanerozoic. The onset of the excursions is characterised by extinction and/or turnover events of several groups of marine invertebrates. The causal mechanisms of the carbon cycle perturbations, however, are still unknown and currently a matter of vigorous scientific debate. Our own investigations in the Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) have shown that the onset of the major δC excursion (HICE) is characterised by very high abundances of acritarchs showing abnormal, teratological forms. A critical review of published reports of abnormal acritarchs from the Late Ordovician to Early Devonian, and a correlation of their occurrences with the global stable carbon isotope curve, show that high abundances of teratological forms of acritarchs are often coeval to the run-up of δC excursions. High abundances of teratological forms in modern marine protists are commonly observed in environments with a high degree of environmental stress. In the fossil record, the challenge is to attribute abnormal forms of organisms to specific environmental circumstances. Our study implies that they are somehow related to the global carbon cycle, i.e., to carbon isotopic composition of the ambient sea water, and that they share a common extrinsic cause with the contemporaneous extinction and/or turnover events in other fossil groups. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

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APA:

Munnecke, A., Delabroye, A., Servais, T., Vandenbroucke, T.R., & Vecoli, M. (2012). Systematic occurrences of malformed (teratological) acritarchs in the run-up of Early Palaeozoic δ13C isotope excursions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 137-146. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.02.029

MLA:

Munnecke, Axel, et al. "Systematic occurrences of malformed (teratological) acritarchs in the run-up of Early Palaeozoic δ13C isotope excursions." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2012): 137-146.

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