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    The controversial "Cambrian" fossils of the Vindhyan are real but more than a billion years older

    134874_134874.pdf (255.5Kb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Bengtson, S.
    Belivanova, V.
    Rasmussen, Birger
    Whitehouse, M.
    Date
    2009
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Bengtson, Stefan and Belivanova, Veneta and Rasmussen, Birger and Whitehouse, Martin. 2009. The controversial "Cambrian" fossils of the Vindhyan are real but more than a billion years older. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (19): pp. 7729-7734.
    Source Title
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    DOI
    10.1073/pnas.0812460106
    ISSN
    00278424
    Faculty
    Department of Applied Geology
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    WA School of Mines
    Remarks

    Copyright © 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences

    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/10114
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    The age of the Vindhyan sedimentary basin in central India is controversial, because geochronology indicating early Proterozoic ages clashes with reports of Cambrian fossils. We present here anintegrated paleontologic-geochronologic investigation to resolve this conundrum. New sampling of Lower Vindhyan phosphoritic stromatolitic dolomites from the northern flank of the Vindhyans confirms the presence of fossils most closely resembling those found elsewhere in Cambrian deposits: annulated tubes, embryolike globules with polygonal surface pattern, and filamentous and coccoidal microbial fabrics similar to Girvanella and Renalcis. None of the fossils, however, can be ascribed to uniquely Cambrian or Ediacaran taxa. Indeed, the embryo-like globules are not interpreted as fossils at all but as former gas bubbles trapped in mucus-rich cyanobacterial mats. Direct dating of the same fossiliferous phosphorite yielded a Pb-Pb isochron of 1,650 ± 89 (2) million years ago, confirming the Paleoproterozoic age of the fossils. New U-Pb geochronology of zircons from tuffaceous mudrocks in the Lower Vindhyan Porcellanite Formation on the southern flank of the Vindhyans give comparable ages. The Vindhyan phosphorites provide a window of 3-dimensionally preserved Paleoproterozoic fossils resembling filamentous and coccoidal cyanobacteria and filamentous eukaryotic algae, as well as problematic forms. Like Neoproterozoic phosphorites a billion years later, the Vindhyan deposits offer important new insights into the nature and diversity of life, and in particular, the early evolution of multicellular eukaryotes.

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