Title: MICROFABRICS IN MESOPROTEROZOIC MICRODIGITATE STROMATOLITES: EVIDENCE OF BIOGENICITY AND ORGANOMINERALIZATION AT MICRON AND NANOMETER SCALES
Abstract: ABSTRACT Microdigitate stromatolites (MDS) are common in Neoarchean–Paleoproterozoic successions but declined and gradually disappeared in Meso- and Neoproterozoic carbonates. The abundance of well-preserved fibrous fabrics and the absence of identifiable microbial fossils in MDS have been taken as evidence of their abiotic origin in carbonate-supersaturated and anoxic Precambrian oceans. Micron- and nanometer-scale features of MDS from the Mesoproterozoic Wumishan Formation (ca. 1.45–1.5 Ga) of the North China platform composed of alternating submillimetric dark and light laminasets are morphologically similar to those reported from elsewhere in the geological record. The dark laminasets are micritic and contain abundant fuzzy-edged micropeloids and filaments. The micropeloids are commonly 10–70 µm in diameter and commonly surrounded by thin (<10 µm) rims composed of amorphous micrite or microsparite (some rims now replaced by silica). The filaments are morphologically similar to the bacterial filaments ...
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-22
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 25
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