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Engineering the Cambrian explosion: the earliest bioturbators as ecosystem engineers

Liam G. Herringshaw, Richard H. T. Callow and Duncan McIlroy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 448, 23 January 2017, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP448.18
Liam G. Herringshaw
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, CanadaGeology, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
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  • For correspondence: L.Herringshaw@hull.ac.uk
Richard H. T. Callow
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, CanadaStatoil ASA, Stavanger 4035, Norway
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Duncan McIlroy
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada
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Abstract

By applying modern biological criteria to trace fossil types and assessing burrow morphology, complexity, depth, potential burrow function and the likelihood of bioirrigation, we assign ecosystem engineering impact (EEI) values to the key ichnotaxa in the lowermost Cambrian (Fortunian). Surface traces such as Monomorphichnus have minimal impact on sediment properties and have very low EEI values; quasi-infaunal traces of organisms that were surficial modifiers or biodiffusors, such as Planolites, have moderate EEI values; and deeper infaunal, gallery biodiffusive or upward-conveying/downward-conveying traces, such as Teichichnus and Gyrolithes, have the highest EEI values. The key Cambrian ichnotaxon Treptichnus pedum has a moderate to high EEI value, depending on its functional interpretation. Most of the major functional groups of modern bioturbators are found to have evolved during the earliest Cambrian, including burrow types that are highly likely to have been bioirrigated. In fine-grained (or microbially bound) sedimentary environments, trace-makers of bioirrigated burrows would have had a particularly significant impact, generating advective fluid flow within the sediment for the first time, in marked contrast with the otherwise diffusive porewater systems of the Proterozoic. This innovation is likely to have created significant ecospace and engineered fundamentally new infaunal environments for macrobiotic and microbiotic organisms alike.

  • © 2017 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London

Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license.

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Engineering the Cambrian explosion: the earliest bioturbators as ecosystem engineers

Liam G. Herringshaw, Richard H. T. Callow and Duncan McIlroy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 448, 23 January 2017, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP448.18
Liam G. Herringshaw
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, CanadaGeology, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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  • For correspondence: L.Herringshaw@hull.ac.uk
Richard H. T. Callow
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, CanadaStatoil ASA, Stavanger 4035, Norway
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Duncan McIlroy
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prince Philip Drive, St John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada
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Engineering the Cambrian explosion: the earliest bioturbators as ecosystem engineers

Liam G. Herringshaw, Richard H. T. Callow and Duncan McIlroy
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 448, 23 January 2017, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP448.18
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