Search results for "14. Life underwater"
showing 10 items of 972 documents
Hydrothermalism in the Tyrrhenian Sea: Inorganic and microbial sulfur cycling as revealed by geochemical and multiple sulfur isotope data
2011
15 pages; International audience; The Palinuro volcanic complex and the Panarea hydrothermal field, both located in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy), are associated with island arc magmatism and characterized by polymetallic sulfide mineralization. Dissolved sulfide concentrations, pH, and Eh measured in porewaters at both sites reveal a variable hydrothermal influence on porewater chemistry. Multiple sulfur isotopic measurements for disseminated sulfides (CRS: chromium reducible sulfur) extracted from sediments at Palinuro yielded a broad range in δ34S range between −29.8 and +10.2‰ and Δ33S values between+0.015 and+0.134‰. In contrast, sediments at Panarea exhibit a much smaller range in δ34SCR…
A little walk between Early Jurassic sponges and corals: a confusing morphological convergence.
2019
24 pages; International audience; Hispaniastraea Turnšek et Geyer, 1975 is a unique coral genus from the Early Jurassic Epoch (Liassic). Corals of this genus are characterised by a highly dominant major septum and a set of eleven minor septa that are very short or even abortive. Initially discovered in Spain, new samples of this genus were depicted from Morocco by Beauvais in 1980; however, this genus was interpreted as a synonym of Pseudoseptifer Fischer, 1970, a chaetetid sponge (i.e., a sponge with siliceous spicules embedded in a calcareous skeleton). The skeleton of Pseudoseptifer is composed of adjacent tubules that increase by fissiparity by means of a pseudoseptum. Based on the stud…
Preliminary report on new echinoderm Lagerstatten from the Upper Ordovician of the eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco.
2006
8 pages (p.23-30); International audience; Four distinct echinoderm Lagerstatten have recently been discovered in the Upper Ordovician of the eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco. They have yielded hundreds of exquisitely preserved specimens. Their taphonomy and associated lithology both suggest rapid, in situ burial. Here we discuss the diverse range of assemblages represented and their significance to the diversity of echinoderms in the Lower Palaeozoic. The oldest assemblage (Izegguirene Formation, lowermost Caradoc) is dominated by eocrinoids, large ophiuroids, and mitrate stylophorans associated with rare crinoids. It shows strong similarities with slightly older faunas described from the under…
Jaws and teeth of the earliest bony fishes
2007
Extant jawed vertebrates, or gnathostomes, fall into two major monophyletic groups, namely chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes) and osteichthyans (bony fishes and tetrapods). Fossil representatives of the osteichthyan crown group are known from the latest Silurian period, 418 million years (Myr) ago, to the present. By contrast, stem chondrichthyans and stem osteichthyans are still largely unknown. Two extinct Palaeozoic groups, the acanthodians and placoderms, may fall into these stem groups or the common stem group of gnathostomes, but their relationships and monophyletic status are both debated. Here we report unambiguous evidence for osteichthyan characters in jaw bones referred to th…
Water mass exchange and variations in seawater temperature in the NW Tethys during the Early Jurassic: evidence from neodymium and oxygen isotopes of…
2009
10 pages; International audience; Oxygen and neodymium isotope analyses performed on biostratigraphically well-dated fish remains recovered from the Hettangian to Toarcian of the Paris Basin were used to reconstruct variations of Early Jurassic seawater temperature and to track oceanographic changes in the NW Tethys. Our results indicate a strong correlation between δ18O trends recorded by fish remains and belemnites, confirming the paleoenvironmental origin of oxygen isotope variations. Interestingly, temperatures recorded by pelagic fishes and nektobenthic belemnites and bottom dwelling fishes are comparable during the Late Pliensbachian sea-level lowstand but gradually differ during the …
Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Signals from the Callovian–Oxfordian in French Sedimentary Basins
2013
3 pages; International audience; High-resolution carbon and oxygen isotope data from the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin (France) are available in a precise biostratigraphic framework for the Callovian-Oxfordian stages. A biostratigraphically well-constrained δ13C curve, derived from bulk carbonates in the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin, is provided in order to document carbon-cycle evolution and to serve as a chemostratigraphic reference for the Callovian-Oxfordian in the Tethyan domain. Sea-temperature reconstructions, using diagenetically screened belemnite and oyster data, reveal major climate perturbations at the Middle-Late Jurassic transition.
Occurrence of organic-matter-rich beds in Early Cretaceous coastal evaporitic setting (Dorset, UK): a link to long-term palaeoclimate changes?
2009
11 pages; International audience; In Dorset (southern U.K.), the Durlston Bay and Lulworth Cove sections expose lowermost Cretaceous coastal marine and non-marine partly evaporitic sediments (the so-called Purbeckian facies). An interval with organic matter (OM)-rich layers is recognized in both sections. This OM-rich interval is 20 m thick in the middle of the Durlston Bay section. Within these beds, a large OM accumulation is recorded, with total organic carbon (TOC) of up to 8.5 wt%. High hydrogen index (HI) values (up to 956 mgHC/gTOC) point to a Type I OM, generally considered as derived from algal-bacterial biomass. This contrasts with the OM present in the underlying and overlying in…
The Valanginian isotope event: a complex suite of palaeoenvironmental perturbations.
2011
17 pages; International audience; The Valanginian records a severe crisis of carbonate systems, both on platforms and in the pelagic realm. This crisis is roughly concomitant with the Weissert Event, characterized by a positive δ13C excursion of about 2‰in marine carbonates. However, it is unclear if the response of these two carbonate systems to the global perturbations is contemporaneous, or if they react differently. For this purpose, accumulation rates of pelagic carbonates produced by nannofossils and of platform-derived carbonates have been quantified in a hemipelagic environment (the Vocontian Basin, SE France) that has the potential to record the reaction of both shallow-water and p…
Revised phosphate-water fractionation equation reassessing paleotemperatures derived from biogenic apatite.
2010
8 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotopes of biogenic apatite have been widely used to reassess anomalous temperatures inferred from oxygen isotope ratios of ancient biogenic calcite, more prone to diagenetic alteration. However, recent studies have highlighted that oxygen isotope ratios of biogenic apatite differ dependent on used analytical techniques. This questions the applicability of the phosphate–water fractionation equations established over 25 years ago using earlier analytical techniques to more recently acquired data. In this work we present a new phosphate–water oxygen isotope fractionation equation based on oxygen isotopes determined on fish raised in aquariums at contro…
Facies variations in response to Holocene sea-level and climate change on Bora Bora, French Polynesia: Unravelling the role of synsedimentary siderit…
2017
International audience; Five mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sedimentary facies were identified in the barrier-reef lagoon of Bora Bora using microfacies and statistical analyses of 70 sediment samples taken at high resolution from two vibrocores. Fades and fades successions were interpreted with respect to Holocene sea-level and climate changes. The windward lagoon core is characterized by sideritic marly wackestones and foraminifera-sideritic wackestones, deposited around 7700 years BP (years before present) during the early-mid Holocene transgression. At that time, extensive weathering and erosion of iron-bearing minerals from the volcanic island, due to a wetter climate, were expressed in…