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Fike et al. reply

Nature volume 450, page E18 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Replying to: K. Grey & C. R. Calver Nature 450, doi: 10.1038/nature06360 (2007).

Calver and Grey1 point out the difficulties of relating the Australian acritarch record to the global record of environmental change. This results from the lack of documented stratigraphic sections that have overlapping chronologies of both acritarch evolution and global chemostratigraphic proxies, such as δ13Ccarb, and we agree that coupled records are required to confirm our hypothesis2. Until such records exist, any correlations between Australian acritarch-bearing strata and strata containing records of global secular variations in δ13Ccarb are necessarily tenuous. This uncertainty, however, does not affect the principal conclusion of our paper, which emphasizes the evidence for sequential chemical oxidation of the Ediacaran ocean. Our inferred correlation between chemical oxidation and biological evolution is supported by subsequent results on strata containing strong geochronologic tie-points and a robust biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic record3,4.

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References

  1. Grey, K. & Calver, C. R. Ediacaran oxidation and biotic evolution. Nature 10.1038/nature06360 (2007)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    D. A. Fike & R. R. Summons

  2. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    J. P. Grotzinger

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    L. L. Pratt

Authors
  1. D. A. Fike
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  2. J. P. Grotzinger
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  3. L. L. Pratt
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  4. R. R. Summons
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Fike, D., Grotzinger, J., Pratt, L. et al. Fike et al. reply. Nature 450, E18 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06361

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