The Role of Red Algae in Abrupt Appearance of Animals in the Early Cambrian on Siberian Platform

The Role of Red Algae in Abrupt Appearance of Animals in the Early Cambrian on Siberian Platform



PDF (Size:1095KB) PP. 60-64   DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2013.412B008


Author(s)

P. N. Kolosov


ABSTRACT

Calcified rock-forming marine filamented benthic micro- and macrophytes of Dzhelindia Kolosov, 1970 (Figure1(а)) and Chaptchaica Kolosov, 1975 (Figure 1(b)) genera, thrived in Neoproterozoic (1000-541 million years ago) Siberia together with cyanobacteria. Their belonging to Rhodophyta is well-grounded. These and other Neoproterozoic rodofits, as well as Epiphyton Bornemann 1886 (Figure 1(c)) and other Early Cambrian (541-513 million years ago) benthic algae, oxygenating floor of epicontinental sea basin, formed conditions, favorable for the animals. In combination with other biotic, and such abiotic factors as: equatorial position and tectonic feature of Siberian platform; volcanism; transgression of the sea; diversity of ecologic niches, these conditions were prerequisites of skeleton and shell acquisition by Early Cambrian animals, and as a consequence, accelerated morphologic evolution, increased diversity of taxons of different groups of animals.

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