Sedimentology and diagenesis of Ediacaran phosphorites from South China

Abstract

Ediacaran phosphorites provide a principal record of the paleoenvironmental and paleoecological conditions of the oceans during Earth's second major oxygenation and the evolution of complex life. Although the fidelity of this record is high, diagenesis and metamorphism frequently alter or overprint primary minerals and structures, necessitating validation of results from mineralogical and geochemical analyses and determinations of fossil affinities. Therefore, it is imperative to unravel the complications of post-depositional alteration, and thus provide a strong foundation for environmental and biological interpretations, via an integrated sedimentological, stratigraphic, petrographic, and geochemical approach. Transmitted light, cathodoluminescence, and scanning electron microscope petrography in conjunction with Raman spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analyses were employed to determine the origin of phosphorites from the early Ediacaran (632 – 614 Ma) Doushantuo Formation at the Wanjiagou section, near Zhangcunping, Hubei Province in South China. Results suggest granular phosphorites were deposited during one to two episodes of reworking of pristine phosphorite hardgrounds, which originated during redox-controlled and/or microbially-mediated phosphogenesis. Granular laminae were then cemented by a ferric iron-phosphate mineral, phosphosiderite. As a product of oxidative weathering and/or thermal stabilization of ferrous iron-phosphates (e.g., vivianite), this cement is suggestive of precipitation from ferruginous porewaters. This is the first direct evidence for iron-phosphate minerals in Ediacaran phosphorites and substantiates previous hypotheses of P burial beyond primary calcium phosphate. If accumulation and burial of phosphorites during this interval was rapid enough to have limited P availability and thus primary productivity, their formation may have governed oxygen production prior to the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE). Oxygenation of the oceans during the NOE and the appearance of complex, multicellular life are suspected to be causally linked within the Ediacaran. However, a fragmented fossil record with insufficient analogues and varied taphonomic modes leaves much of the Ediacaran fauna with uncertain taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities, leading to ambiguity regarding their life modes and environmental associations. Furthermore, demonstrating biogenicity is an often overlooked, yet fundamental component of Ediacaran fossil identification and interpretation, something that has particularly affected the morphologically simple discoidal group of fossils known colloquially as Aspidella. Petrographic observations supported by Raman and energy dispersive spectroscopy provide evidence that discoidal concretions from the Ediacaran Miaohe Member near Maxi, Hubei Province in South China are diagenetic in origin but superficially resemble Aspidella's morphology. Erosion of these syn-compactional concretions produced concentric rings on bedding planes caused by internally deformed laminae resulting in Aspidella pseudofossils. These results highlight the necessity for critical evaluation of the origin of discoidal structures observed in Ediacaran sedimentary successions.