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Ocean oxygenation in the wake of the Marinoan glaciation

Nature volume 489, pages 546–549 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metazoans are likely to have their roots in the Cryogenian period1,2,3, but there is a marked increase in the appearance of novel animal and algae fossils shortly after the termination of the late Cryogenian (Marinoan) glaciation about 635 million years ago4,5,6. It has been suggested that an oxygenation event in the wake of the severe Marinoan glaciation was the driving factor behind this early diversification of metazoans and the shift in ecosystem complexity7,8. But there is little evidence for an increase in oceanic or atmospheric oxygen following the Marinoan glaciation, or for a direct link between early animal evolution and redox conditions in general9. Models linking trends in early biological evolution to shifts in Earth system processes thus remain controversial10. Here we report geochemical data from early Ediacaran organic-rich black shales (∼635–630 million years old) of the basal Doushantuo Formation in South China. High enrichments of molybdenum and vanadium and low pyrite sulphur isotope values (Δ34S values ≥65 per mil) in these shales record expansion of the oceanic inventory of redox-sensitive metals and the growth of the marine sulphate reservoir in response to a widely oxygenated ocean. The data provide evidence for an early Ediacaran oxygenation event, which pre-dates the previous estimates for post-Marinoan oxygenation11,12,13 by more than 50 million years. Our findings seem to support a link between the most severe glaciations in Earth’s history, the oxygenation of the Earth’s surface environments, and the earliest diversification of animals.

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Figure 1: Locality maps and stratigraphy.
Figure 2: Trace-metal abundances (Mo, Mo/TOC, V, V/TOC, U, U/TOC) and pyrite sulphur isotopes (δ 34 S pyrite ) from the lower Doushantuo Formation black shales.
Figure 3: Summary of redox-sensitive trace elements and evolution of the ocean–atmosphere redox state.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Science, NASA Astrobiology programme and National Natural Science Foundation of China. We are grateful to S. Xiao for input, discussions and editing the palaeontological text. We thank C. Reinhard, G. Love, A. Mix, J. Morford, D. Adams, J. Owens, C. Li and L. Och for discussions and S. Bates, G. Gordon and J. Owens for assistance with laboratory analyses. We thank M. Wille for comments and suggestions.

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  1. Brian Kendall

    Present address: Present address: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 89154, Nevada, USA

    Swapan K. Sahoo & Ganqing Jiang

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Noah J. Planavsky & Timothy W. Lyons

  3. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Brian Kendall & Ariel D. Anbar

  4. School of Earth Science and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 10008, China

    Xinqiang Wang & Xiaoying Shi

  5. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A7, Canada,

    Clint Scott

  6. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Ariel D. Anbar

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Contributions

The research was planned by G.J., T.W.L., A.D.A., X.S., S.K.S., N.J.P., B.K. and X.W. Samples were collected by S.K.S., X.W. and G.J. The manuscript was prepared by S.K.S., N.J.P. and G.J., with important contributions from all co-authors. Analyses were carried out by S.K.S. with contributions from N.J.P. and B.K.

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Correspondence to Ganqing Jiang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary References, Supplementary Figures 1-4 and Supplementary Tables 1-3. (PDF 2509 kb)

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Sahoo, S., Planavsky, N., Kendall, B. et al. Ocean oxygenation in the wake of the Marinoan glaciation. Nature 489, 546–549 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11445

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