Possible links between extreme oxygen perturbations and the Cambrian radiation of animals

The role of oxygen as a driver for early animal evolution is widely debated. During the Cambrian explosion, episodic radiations of major animal phyla occurred coincident with repeated carbon isotope fluctuations. However, the driver of these isotope fluctuations and potential links to environmental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature geoscience 2019-06, Vol.12 (6), p.468-474
Main Authors: He, Tianchen, Zhu, Maoyan, Mills, Benjamin J. W., Wynn, Peter M., Zhuravlev, Andrey Yu, Tostevin, Rosalie, Pogge von Strandmann, Philip A. E., Yang, Aihua, Poulton, Simon W., Shields, Graham A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/106/2738
704/2151/414
704/47
704/47/4112
704/47/4113
Anoxia
Atmospheric models
Biodiversity
Biogeochemistry
Biological evolution
Cambrian
Carbon isotopes
Carbonates
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth System Sciences
Evolution
Explosive plating
Fluctuations
Geochemistry
Geology
Geophysics/Geodesy
Mass extinctions
Oscillations
Oxygen
Oxygenation
Perturbations
Radiation
Species extinction
Sulfates
Sulfur
Sulfur isotopes
Sulphur
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Summary:The role of oxygen as a driver for early animal evolution is widely debated. During the Cambrian explosion, episodic radiations of major animal phyla occurred coincident with repeated carbon isotope fluctuations. However, the driver of these isotope fluctuations and potential links to environmental oxygenation are unclear. Here we report high-resolution carbon and sulfur isotope data for marine carbonates from the southeastern Siberian Platform that document the canonical explosive phase of the Cambrian radiation from ~524 to ~514 Myr ago. These analyses demonstrate a strong positive covariation between carbonate δ 13 C and carbonate-associated sulfate δ 34 S through five isotope cycles. Biogeochemical modelling suggests that this isotopic coupling reflects periodic oscillations in the atmospheric O 2 and the extent of shallow-ocean oxygenation. Episodic maxima in the biodiversity of animal phyla directly coincided with these extreme oxygen perturbations. Conversely, the subsequent Botoman–Toyonian animal extinction events (~514 to ~512 Myr ago) coincided with decoupled isotope records that suggest a shrinking marine sulfate reservoir and expanded shallow marine anoxia. We suggest that fluctuations in oxygen availability in the shallow marine realm exerted a primary control on the timing and tempo of biodiversity radiations at a crucial phase in the early history of animal life. Fluctuations in early Cambrian biodiversity of animals coincided with extreme oscillations in atmospheric and shallow-ocean oxygenation, according to analyses of carbon and sulfur isotopes in Cambrian-age marine carbonates.
ISSN:1752-0894
1752-0908
DOI:10.1038/s41561-019-0357-z