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Comms GSN 21 Complete Project Report: Grinding Through the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition ROSE, C.V.1, PRAVE, A.R.1, BERGMANN, K.D.2, CONDON, D.J.3, KASEMANN, S.A.4, MACDONALD, F.A.5, HOFFMANN, K.-H.6, TRINDADE, R.I.F.7 & ZHU, M.8 1 School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL, UK (e-mail : [email protected]; [email protected]) 2 Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA 3 NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratories, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK 4 MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Germany 5 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA 6 Regional Geoscience Division, Geological Survey of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia 7 Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-900 São Paulo, Brazil 8 Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China Abstract: The Neoproterozoic Era (1000 - 541 Ma) was one of the most dramatic in Earth history: metazoans evolved, the supercontinent Rodinia formed and broke apart, the global carbon cycle underwent high-amplitude fluctuations, oxygen concentrations rose and climate experienced at least two episodes of worldwide glaciation. However, the discontinuous and fragmented nature of outcrop- based studies has hindered developing quantitative models of Earth system functioning during that Era. The Geological Research through Integrated Neoproterozoic Drilling (GRIND) project will begin to rectify this scientific shortcoming by obtaining 13 cores, each between 150 to 600 m in length, through the archetype successions that record the environmental and biogeochemical context during which animals evolved. The specific targets are the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition (ECT; c. 560-530 Ma) strata of west Brazil (Corumbá Group), south China (Doushantuo, Dengying and equivalent formations) and south Namibia (Nama Group). Our objective is to create a core network of correlative ECT strata that will enable the construction of a high resolution, temporally constrained geobiological, stratigraphic and geochemical database, as well as to provide a legacy archive for future research. The goal is to understand the drivers of the Neoproterozoic Earth system revolution: it began with simple eukaryotes that populated Earth during the preceding billion years of the Mesoproterozoic, underwent multiple Snowball Earth events and emerged with the oxygenated, diverse ecosystems of the Cambrian. The excellent outcrops of the Nama Group in Namibia are central to the success of the GRIND project, as is the invaluable expertise and support of the Geological Survey of Namibia. The stratigraphy of these rocks is well-documented and is an archetype of the late Ediacaran to early Cambrian. Furthermore, the presence of abundant ash beds offers excellent opportunities for obtaining high-precision U-Pb geochronology, making the Nama Group an ideal target for acquiring precise temporally constrained and detailed geobiological and geochemical data to meet our research goals. Key words: Corumbá Group, Doushantuo Formation, Dengying Formation, Ediacaran, International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, Nama Group, Neoproterozoic To cite this article: Rose et al. 2019. Project Report: Grinding Through the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition. Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia, 21, 1-14. Introduction The Neoproterozoic Era (1000 - 541 Ma) dramatic changes in Earth history occurred began with simple eukaryotes that populated (Fig. 1): animals appeared from a world of Earth during the preceding billion years of the bacteria and algae (Cohen & Macdonald, Mesoproterozoic and ended with the 2015) the supercontinent Rodinia formed and oxygenated and diverse ecosystems of the broke apart (Evans, 2013; Li et al. 2008), the Cambrian. In the interim, some of the most carbon cycle underwent high-amplitude 1 fluctuations (Halverson et al. 2005), oxygen and lack of exact age constraints on the timing concentrations are thought to have risen and durations of those episodes hinders the (Lyons et al. 2014) and climate experienced at development of quantitatively constrained least two episodes of prolonged worldwide models of Earth system functioning during glaciation (Rooney et al. 2015). However, the that Era. fragmented nature of outcrop-based studies Figure 1. Selected secular trends revealing the distinctiveness of the Neoproterozoic. (A) C cycle and pO2 (PAL - present atmospheric level). (B) Biospheric evolution. (C) Global tectonics: 1-Grenville orogeny; 2-Rodinia supercontinent; 3-Rodinia rift-to-drift phase; 4-Pan-African orogeny. Solid blue bands represent periods of global glaciations, dashed blue bands denote glaciations restricted to high-latitudes and the red band is the time interval to be targeted by GRIND-ECT. 2 The Geological Research through nature and drivers of this pivotal time in Earth Integrated Neoproterozoic Drilling (GRIND) history and will be achieved via a series of project (Condon et al. 2015) aims to address coordinated drilling projects, undertaken that shortcoming by creating a global core sequentially, that target the key localities archive for the Neoproterozoic Era. Fresh, recording those Earth system transformations. oriented cores will enable the construction of The first phase of GRIND will focus on the continuous high-resolution bio-, chemo- cyclo- Ediacaran-Cambrian transition (GRIND-ECT; and magnetostratigraphies integrated with Fig. 2, Time Slab C), with potential future geochemical and chronostratigraphic data. The phases targeting the remainder of the project is an international, community-wide Neoproterozoic (Time Slabs A and B). collaborative effort to understand better the Figure 2. Neoproterozoic time slabs identified for drilling in the GRIND project and stratigraphy and major glacial periods for key successions worldwide. Red highlighted intervals denote the Time Slab C target of GRIND-ECT. Biospheric evolutionary trends are given to the left with a plot of the composite C-isotopic profile and excursions: 1-Bitter Springs; 2-Islay; 3-Keele Peak; 4-Taishir; 5-Trezona; 6-Shuram; 7-BASE. Ca - Cambrian. See text for references providing the sources of data. Since Darwin’s (1859) observation of the What were the timing and rates of the seemingly rapid appearance of fossils in advent, expansion and extinction of Cambrian strata, resolving the causes and Ediacaran biota? tempo of the ‘Cambrian Explosion’ remains What were the environmental contexts one of science’s great challenges (Erwin et al. and timing for changing skeletal 2011). GRIND-ECT will obtain sufficient mineralogy and diversification of temporal resolution and integration of biomineralising Metazoa? geological, geochemical and biological data to What was the pattern of oxygenation address the following key questions: (globally and regionally) and how does it 3 relate to other geochemical patterns? Was The ECT strata in west Brazil, south China there a Neoproterozoic oxygenation event? and southern Namibia were chosen to answer What were the timing, duration, genesis these questions because their geological record and implications for the global C cycle and from the Marinoan glacial to the early the large amplitude C-isotope excursions in Cambrian is excellent, well understood and late Ediacaran to Cambrian strata? will guide drilling and supplement core data Is the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary a (Fig. 3). In addition, each country has synchronous worldwide biological event or expertise and infrastructure for drilling and a lengthy episode of biological innovation? coring. GRIND-ECT will be coordinated around three research foci (RF). Figure 3. Schematic showing GRIND-ECT target sections in Brazil (B1-2), China (C1-6) and Namibia (N1-5), and their temporal relationship to key evolutionary, C-isotope and tectonic events. Red arrows represent ash beds. Inset map shows locations of drill sites (marked by stars) on a palaeocontinent reconstruction for the formation of Gondwana during the late Ediacaran. See text for references providing these data. Research Focus 1: A highly resolved temporal framework The goal of RF1 is to obtain precise dates 2007; Narbonne, 2005; Grotzinger et al. 1995; on tuffs and organic-rich shales using U-Pb Cohen et al. 2009; Marshall, 2006). These zircon CA-ID-TIMS and Re-Os evolutionary milestones are associated with C- geochronology and integrate those with isotope excursions (amplitudes of ≥8‰; e.g. palaeomagnetism and physical stratigraphy to Maloof et al. 2010; Smith et al. 2016; Zhu et construct age models for the ECT. ECT strata al. 2017) and, although temporal coincidence preserve the earliest known phosphatised is often assumed, their timing and duration Metazoa embryos, the first appearance datum remain to be constrained precisely. These data of Treptichnus pedum and an increase in will underpin the work being done in RF2 and diversity of Metazoa, trace fossils and RF3. phytoplankton (Landing, 1994; Yin et al. Research Focus 2: Fossil record of early animal evolution The goal of RF2 is to refine the patterns of RF3 to assess the links between and test biotic evolution of organic-walled and hypotheses about biological evolution and mineralised microfossils, metazoans and trace environment. Documenting changes in fossils and integrate those data with RF1 and morphology and skeletal
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