Origin of the Phanerozoic-style marine substrates and paleoenvironmental controls of the Agronomic Revolution in the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition

• Grant number: 23/14578-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Lucas Verissimo Warren
• Grantee: Lucas Verissimo Warren
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Anelize Manuela Bahniuk Rumbelsperger ; Bernardo Tavares Freitas ; Daniel G. Poiré ; Filipe Giovanini Varejão ; Gabriel Correa Antunes ; George Luiz Luvizotto ; Juliana Okubo ; Luana Pereira Costa de Morais ; Lucas Inglez dos Reis ; LUCIA ELENA GOMEZ-PERAL ; Luis Alberto Buatois ; Marcello Guimarães Simões ; Maria Gabriela Mangano ; Mario Luis Assine ; Mathew Domeier

Abstract

The transition between the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic eons is one of the most emblematic time intervals in the Planet's geological record. As a direct and indirect prduct of profound paleoenvironmental changes (e.g. glaciations), important variations in the carbon cycle and ocean geochemistry (e.g. oxidation and nutrient input events), and bioevolutionary events (e.g. origin of metazoa), this passage definitively corresponds to the transition from the Precambrian to the Phanerozoic world. Currently, the efforts of researchers from different areas of geology are essential to stratigraphically and temporally constrain the limits of this interval, as well as to assess through diverse investigative techniques, which paleoenvironmental characteristics were prevalent during the passage of geological eons. In this context, the Tagatiya Guazu Formation, Itapucumi Group, Paraguay, figures as the unique know unit that holds the record of the Ediacaran-Cambrian passage in South America. This mixed succession is characterized by one of the most complete and diverse paleontological records in the terminal Ediacaran and presents a large number of bioturbated levels, making it the ideal unit for investigating paleoenvironmental parameters as conditions for the selective colonization of substrates, variation in sedimentation patterns, oxygenation and geochemical variations in the water. In these terms, this project proposes the definition, through multiple investigative techniques (sedimentology, geochemistry, paleontology and geochronology) of the paleoenvironmental parameters that have helped to elucidate how, and under what conditions, the so-called colonization of marine substrates took place (e.g. Revolution Agronomic), cause and effect relationship between water column oxygenation and evolutionary peaks, origin of bioclasticity in the oceans and limits of faunal descent, that is, how and which elements of the Ediacaran assemblages generated descendant groups in the Phanerozoic. In line with ongoing research in Namibia, Mexico and the USA, this proposal is part of the portfolio of the Subcommission on Ediacaran Stratigraphy-IUGS, and will be fundamental in the correlation between key sections of the Ediacaran-Cambrian passage, helping to define/distinct global and local paleoenvironmental parameters as evolutionary forcings and determinants for the origin of the first Phanerozoic ecosystems. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

V. WARREN, LUCAS; BERKER-KERBER, BRUNO; INGLEZ, LUCAS; VAREJAO, FILIPE G.; MORAIS, LUANA P. C.; SIMOES, MARCELLO G.; FREITAS, BERNARDO T.; ARROUY, JULIA M.; GOMEZ-PERAL, LUCIA E.; POIRE, DANIEL G.; et al. The Ediacaran paleontological record in South America. EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS, v. 258, p. 35-pg., 2024-09-10. (18/26230-6, 20/11320-0, 22/06133-1, 23/14578-6)

VAREJAO, FILIPE G.; CERRI, RODRIGO I.; WARREN, LUCAS, V; RODRIGUES, MARIZA G.; PUETZ, STEPHEN J.; DE LORENSO, PALOMA P.; SIMOES, MARCELLO G.. Key patterns in exceptional fossil preservation since the rise of metazoans. EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS, v. 262, p. 10-pg., 2025-03-01. (23/14578-6)