Morphological preservation of carbonaceous plant fossils in blueschist metamorphic rocks from New Zealand

Gálvez, María Elena; Beyssac, Olivier; Benzerara, Karim; Bernard, S. Stephen; Menguy, Nicolas; Cox, Simon C.; Martínez, Isabelle; Johnston, M. R.; Brown, Gordon E.

doi:10.1111/j.1472-4669.2011.00316.x

Cited by 33 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(148 reference statements)

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“…This may decrease slightly the quality of structural preservation at the submicrometer-scale. However, it should be noted that some ancient fossils of soft tissues of metazoans have been preserved by clays, including within metamorphic rocks of relatively high grade (Zhang and Briggs, 2007;Galvez et al, 2012;Wacey et al, 2014), supporting the plausibility of fossil preservation by such silicates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preservation in microbial mats: mineralization by a talc-like phase of a fish embedded in a microbial sarcophagus

et al. 2015

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Microbial mats have been repeatedly suggested to promote early fossilization of macroorganisms. Yet, experimental simulations of this process remain scarce. Here, we report results of 5 year-long experiments performed onfish carcasses to document the influence of microbial mats on mineral precipitation during early fossilization. Carcasses were initially placed on top of microbial mats. After 2 weeks, fish became coated by the mats forming a compact sarcophagus, which modified the microenvironment close to the corpses. Our results showed that these conditions favored the precipitation of a poorly crystalline silicate phase rich in magnesium. This talc-like mineral phase has been detected in three different locations within the carcasses placed in microbial mats for more than 4 years: (1) within inner tissues, colonized by several bacillary cells; (2) at the surface of bones of the upper face of the corpse buried in the mat; and (3) at the surface of several bones such as the dorsal fin which appeared to be gradually replaced by the Mg-silicate phase. This mineral phase has been previously shown to promote bacteria fossilization. Here we provide first experimental evidence that such Mg-rich phase can also be involved in exceptional preservation of animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preservation in microbial mats: mineralization by a talc-like phase of a fish embedded in a microbial sarcophagus

et al. 2015

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“…Such lagerstätten (i.e., a sedimentary deposit with exceptional fossil preservation) commonly preserve (micro)fossils in silica (e.g., Gunflint biota1), pyrite (e.g., Hunsrück slate biota2) or phosphate (e.g., Doushantou biota3). In recent years, the ability of alumino-silicates (e.g., clay minerals and their diagenetic and metamorphic derivatives) to preserve fine scale features of soft-bodied organisms has received increased attention456789101112131415161718192021.…”

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confidence: 99%

Enhanced cellular preservation by clay minerals in 1 billion-year-old lakes

Wacey

Saunders

Roberts

et al. 2014

Sci Rep

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Organic-walled microfossils provide the best insights into the composition and evolution of the biosphere through the first 80 percent of Earth history. The mechanism of microfossil preservation affects the quality of biological information retained and informs understanding of early Earth palaeo-environments. We here show that 1 billion-year-old microfossils from the non-marine Torridon Group are remarkably preserved by a combination of clay minerals and phosphate, with clay minerals providing the highest fidelity of preservation. Fe-rich clay mostly occurs in narrow zones in contact with cellular material and is interpreted as an early microbially-mediated phase enclosing and replacing the most labile biological material. K-rich clay occurs within and exterior to cell envelopes, forming where the supply of Fe had been exhausted. Clay minerals inter-finger with calcium phosphate that co-precipitated with the clays in the sub-oxic zone of the lake sediments. This type of preservation was favoured in sulfate-poor environments where Fe-silicate precipitation could outcompete Fe-sulfide formation. This work shows that clay minerals can provide an exceptionally high fidelity of microfossil preservation and extends the known geological range of this fossilization style by almost 500 Ma. It also suggests that the best-preserved microfossils of this time may be found in low-sulfate environments.

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“…; Galvez et al . ; Karunakaran et al . ), and rather typical of macromolecular aromatic compounds such as pyrobitumen (Bernard et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the structure and chemistry of fossils of the earliest woody plant

et al. 2019

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Palaeontology relies on the description of fossil morphologies to understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Yet much remains unknown about the impact of fossilization processes, even though these may introduce biases into palaeobiological interpretations. Here, we report the characterization of fossilized remains of the earliest known woody plant Armoricaphyton chateaupannense preserved either in 2D (as flat carbonaceous films) or in 3D (as organo‐mineral structures) in early Devonian shales (c. 407 Ma) of the Armorican Massif on the northern margin of Gondwana. To document the fine‐scale structure and the chemistry of the tracheids of this ancient plant, we used propagation phase contrast synchrotron radiation X‐ray microcomputed tomography (PPC‐SRμCT), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and synchrotron‐based scanning transmission X‐ray microscopy (STXM) coupled with X‐ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. PPC‐SRμCT enables digital visualization of cell walls in unprecedented detail for the specimens preserved in 3D revealing structures similar to those observed in extant lignified cells, thereby strongly suggesting that the earliest woody plant A. chateaupannense originally contained lignin compounds. STXM‐based XANES and TEM data show that, whatever the preservation modes (3D vs 2D), the remaining organic matter has a chemical composition rather typical of pyrobitumen compounds, raising the possibility of an original source other than lignin. The pyrobitumen compounds also contains automorphic Ti‐nanominerals interpreted as a diagenetic feature. Altogether, the present study illustrates that anatomical and chemical preservations may not always be correlated.

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Morphological preservation of carbonaceous plant fossils in blueschist metamorphic rocks from New Zealand

Cited by 33 publications

References 69 publications

Preservation in microbial mats: mineralization by a talc-like phase of a fish embedded in a microbial sarcophagus

Preservation in microbial mats: mineralization by a talc-like phase of a fish embedded in a microbial sarcophagus

Enhanced cellular preservation by clay minerals in 1 billion-year-old lakes

On the structure and chemistry of fossils of the earliest woody plant

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