Access

Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 415–418 (1 June 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo525

Biotic turnover driven by eutrophication before the Sturtian low-latitude glaciation

Robin M. Nagy , Susannah M. Porter , Carol M. Dehler & Yanan Shen

Reconstructions of the diversity of Precambrian microorganisms suggest a pronounced biotic turnover coinciding with the onset of Neoproterozoic low-latitude glaciation, in which diverse assemblages of organic-walled microfossils known as acritarchs were replaced by assemblages of simple, smooth-walled forms called leiosphaerids, and the remnants of bacterial blooms. This turnover has been interpreted as the mass extinction of eukaryotic phytoplankton and the subsequent proliferation of bacteria.