Palaeontology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Article |

    Colonization of continents by plants some 430 Myr ago enhanced the complexity of weathering and sedimentary systems, and altered the composition of continental crust, according to statistical assessment of zircon compositions.

    • Christopher J. Spencer
    • , Neil S. Davies
    •  & Gui-Mei Lu

  • Article |

    The Philippine Sea/Pacific boundary megathrust is another possible source of seismic hazard in the Tokyo Region and tsunamis in the Pacific, according to an assessment of 1,000 years of tsunami deposits along the Japanese coastline.

    • Jessica E. Pilarczyk
    • , Yuki Sawai
    •  & Christopher H. Vane

  • Article |

    Phosphorus remobilized from seafloor sediments due to a reduced influx of iron-oxide from land led to widespread anoxia during the end-Permian mass extinction, according to palaeoredox and phosphorus speciation proxy records from Svalbard.

    • Martin Schobben
    • , William J. Foster
    •  & Simon W. Poulton

  • News & Views |

    A regional oxygenation event 1.6 billion years ago coincided with the appearance of large fossils, but whether the availability of oxygen was the primary driver of the diversification of multicellular organisms remains to be seen.

    • Emma U. Hammarlund

  • News & Views |

    A combination of two anoxygenic pathways of photosynthesis could have helped to warm early Earth, according to geochemical models. These metabolisms, and attendant biogeochemical feedbacks, could have worked to counter the faint young Sun.

    • Thomas A. Laakso

  • News & Views |

    The Cambrian evolution of burrowing species is thought to have facilitated sediment mixing. However, sediment fabrics suggest that bioturbation remained insignificant until the appearance of more efficient sediment mixers in the Silurian.

    • Murray Gingras
    •  & Kurt Konhauser

  • Letter |

    Mobile organisms first appeared in the fossil record prior to the Precambrian–Cambrian transition. Sediment textures indicate that the degree of sediment mixing by animal activity remained low for 120 million years following the transition.

    • Lidya G. Tarhan
    • , Mary L. Droser
    •  & David T. Johnston

  • News & Views |

    The Earth's long-term silica cycle is intimately linked to weathering rates and biogenic uptake. Changes in weathering rates and the retention of silica on land have altered silica availability in the oceans for hundreds of millions of years.

    • Daniel J. Conley
    •  & Joanna C. Carey

  • Commentary |

    Today, the ratio of carbon to nitrogen and phosphorus in marine organic matter is relatively constant. But this ratio probably varied during the Earth's history as a consequence of changes in the phytoplankton community and ocean oxygen levels.

    • Noah J. Planavsky

  • News & Views |

    Some modern microorganisms derive energy from the oxidation and reduction of arsenic. The association of arsenic with organic cellular remains in 2.7-billion-year-old stromatolites hints at arsenic-based metabolisms at the dawn of life.

    • Thomas R. Kulp

  • News & Views |

    Multicellular animals probably evolved at the seafloor after a rise in oceanic oxygen levels. Biogeochemical model simulations suggest that as these animals started to rework the seafloor, they triggered a negative feedback that reduced global oxygen.

    • Filip J. R. Meysman

  • Editorial |

    The march from an Archaean microbial world to the modern reign of more complex life was slow but not steady. Instead, the rise of the animals may have resulted from an intricate back-and-forth between evolving life and the Earth's environment.

  • News & Views |

    Oxygen-producing photosynthesis must have evolved before the pervasive oxidation of the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago, but how long before is unclear. Geochemical analyses of ancient sedimentary rocks now suggest that cyanobacteria generated oxygen at least 3 billion years ago.

    • Alan J. Kaufman

  • News & Views |

    The end-Permian extinction decimated marine life on an unprecedented scale. However, an analysis of the lifestyles of the surviving genera shows that very little functional diversity was lost at the sea floor.

    • Martin Aberhan

  • Article |

    At least two-thirds of marine genera died out during the end-Permian mass extinction about 252 million years ago. An analysis of extinct and surviving taxa shows no substantial loss in global functional diversity, although there were significant losses in some settings such as tropical reefs.

    • William J. Foster
    •  & Richard J. Twitchett

  • Letter |

    The Archaean rocks of Isua, West Greenland, contain graphite, but its origins are debated. Geochemical and microscopic analyses suggest that the graphite was formed from biologically formed carbon that was deposited at least 3.7 billion years ago.

    • Yoko Ohtomo
    • , Takeshi Kakegawa
    •  & Minik T. Rosing

  • Editorial |

    The Pleistocene megafauna extinction erased a group of remarkable animals. Whether humans had a prominent role in the extinction remains controversial, but it is emerging that the disappearance of the giants has markedly affected the environment.

  • Letter |

    Between about 50 and 10 thousand years ago, almost 100 genera of large animals went extinct. Mathematical analyses suggest that the extinctions in Amazonia have led to a reduction in the lateral flux of the limiting nutrient phosphorus—by transport of dung and bodies—by 98%.

    • Christopher E. Doughty
    • , Adam Wolf
    •  & Yadvinder Malhi

  • News & Views |

    The Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum was marked by global warming and ocean acidification. Fossil and experimental analyses show that different species of marine calcifying algae responded very differently to the environmental upheavals.

    • Gerald Langer

  • Letter |

    Coccolithophores are a key component of the oceanic food web, and may be sensitive to environmental changes. Modern experiments and an assessment of the fossil record suggest that the response of individual species to a period of ocean acidification in the past may have affected the evolutionary success of these species’ lineages.

    • Samantha J. Gibbs
    • , Alex J. Poulton
    •  & Cherry Newsam

  • Letter |

    Over 90% of marine species were lost during the end-Permian extinction. Fossil data show that the crisis in China was marked by two distinct phases of marine extinction separated by a 180,000-year recovery period.

    • Haijun Song
    • , Paul B. Wignall
    •  & Hongfu Yin

  • News & Views |

    The Triassic–Jurassic period extinction marked a rapid turnover in the marine realm. Biomarkers in marine rocks suggest that the development of sulphidic conditions in the early Jurassic delayed marine recovery.

    • Katja Meyer

  • Review Article |

    Over 90% of species were lost during the end-Permian mass extinction. A review of the fossil record shows that the rate of recovery was highly variable between different groups of organisms as a result of complex biotic interactions and repeated environmental perturbations.

    • Zhong-Qiang Chen
    •  & Michael J. Benton

  • Article |

    Rifting of the eastern part of the East African Rift System was thought to have begun several million years before its western counterpart. Reconstructions of drainage development, combined with dating of rift-related volcanic activity, suggest that rifting in the western branch may instead have begun at the same time as in the eastern branch.

    • E. M. Roberts
    • , N. J. Stevens
    •  & S. Hemming

  • Letter |

    The role of the North American seaway in creating and maintaining Late Cretaceous global greenhouse conditions has been unclear. An isotopic analysis of marine turtle and fish fossils from western Kansas and the Mississippi embayment reveals that the inflow of Tethyan surface waters to the seaway was limited.

    • Alan B. Coulson
    • , Matthew J. Kohn
    •  & Reese E. Barrick

  • Letter |

    Two competing models have been suggested to explain the recovery of ecosystems from mass extinctions. An analysis of the recovery of marine pelagic communities from the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction supports a model of contingent recovery, rather than one based on trophic structure.

    • Pincelli M. Hull
    • , Richard D. Norris
    •  & Jonathan D. Schueth

  • News & Views |

    Proof that purported fossils of early life are truly old and biological is often controversial. Detailed analyses confirm the early evolution of microbial sulphur cycling and reveal microfossils in 3.4-billion-year-old beach sandstones.

    • Emmanuelle J. Javaux

  • Letter |

    Microbes were thought to be the dominant reef constructors following the end-Permian mass extinction. Sponge–microbe reef deposits formed in the Early Triassic from the western United States suggest that instead, metazoan-reef building continued immediately following the extinction wherever marine conditions allowed.

    • Arnaud Brayard
    • , Emmanuelle Vennin
    •  & Gilles Escarguel

  • Letter |

    Geochemical evidence suggests that sulphur-metabolizing bacteria were present at least 3.5 billion years ago. Geochemical and petrological analyses of microstructures from 3.4-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia suggest they are the remains of early sulphur-reducing and sulphur-disproportionating bacteria.

    • David Wacey
    • , Matt R. Kilburn
    •  & Martin D. Brasier

  • Article |

    The expansion of land plants led to the development of new river and floodplain morphologies. Field studies suggest that the expansion of tree habitats in the Carboniferous period caused the development of river systems dominated by multiple channels and stable alluvial islands.

    • Neil S. Davies
    •  & Martin R. Gibling

  • Letter |

    Hot mantle upwelling in the Icelandic plume has caused episodic uplift of sedimentary basins located off the northwest coast of Europe. Reconstruction of river profiles on an ancient buried landscape constrains the history of surface uplift and suggests that pulses of hot plume material spread out at velocities of 35 cm yr−1.

    • Ross A. Hartley
    • , Gareth G. Roberts
    •  & Chris Richardson

  • Commentary |

    Reconstructions of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 65 million years are heading towards consensus. It is time for systematic testing of the proxies, against measurements and against each other.

    • David J. Beerling
    •  & Dana L. Royer

  • Article |

    A brief period of warming 55.9 Myr ago has been attributed to the release of massive amounts of carbon. Geochemical and model data suggest the peak rate of carbon emission during this interval was relatively slow, and significantly lower than present-day levels of carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

    • Ying Cui
    • , Lee R. Kump
    •  & Ian C. Harding

  • News & Views |

    Animals originated in a world with marine oxygen levels only a fraction of those found in today's oceans. Observations of microbial habitats in present-day lagoons suggest that early animals could have found refuge in oxygen-producing mats.

    • Jake Bailey

  • Letter |

    The evolution of marine complex animals about 635 million years ago took place in relatively low-oxygen waters. An analysis of a low-oxygen, hypersaline lagoon suggests these early animals may have obtained both oxygen and food from widespread microbial mats.

    • Murray Gingras
    • , James W. Hagadorn
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

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