The microbial communities blooming immediately after the end-Permian mass extinction represent abnormally extreme environments, and vary in different areas. In this study, filamentous cyanobacterial biota was found in the strata after the extinction in the famous Permian-Triassic boundary section at Laolongdong, Chongqing, southwest China. In thin sections, the filamentous cyanobacterial fossils are below 1 mm in length, and generally taper to one end, with the widest diameter up to 0.08 mm. Some of them are curved, indicating that they are soft in life. Their walls are composed of cryptocrystalline to microcrystalline calcites. The filaments have round cross section, and are internally filled with micrites and fine sparry calcites, which indicate that the filaments are originally empty. They are randomly dis-tributed in the rocks, but in some places, they tend to be distributed in radial pattern. The filamentous organisms are morphologically similar to Rivularia of Rivulariaceae, Cyanobacteria Phylum, but with calcified sheaths, and are tentatively regarded as an indeterminate new species in Rivularia: Rivularia sp. Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic autotrophic, and can survive in dysoxic condition. The blooming of this organism and the absence of other organisms may indicate that the environment was oxygen- deficient and shallow, since this photosynthetic autotrophic organism needed to live within photic zone.
Studies of two Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) sections on top of a Changhsingian reef in Ziyun, Guizhou Province, southwestern China indicate that the end-Permian mass extinction of reef ecosystems occurred in two steps. The first step is the extinction of all stenotropic organisms such as calcisponges and fusulinids in the latest Permian (in the Clarkina yini conodont zone). The biota after the first extinction is simple, comprising eurytropic organisms including microgastropods, ostracods, and some small burrowing organisms, or only algal mats. At the beginning of the Early Triassic (i.e. the beginning of the Hindeodus parvus zone), the environments became anoxic, and the microgastropod dominated biota or algal mats disappeared, which constituted the second episode of the mass extinction. The biota after the second extinction comprises small spherical microproblematica, some kinds of specialized organisms tolerant of anoxic or oxygen-poor conditions. As the environments became oxygenated, the specialized biota was replaced by a microgastropod-dominated simple biota. When the environmental conditions improved further, the simple biota was replaced by a diverse biota with normal-sized ammonoids, bivalves, and gastropods, representing restoration of normal oceanic condi- tions. Comparison with PTB sections in Dolomites, Italy and Meishan, Zhejiang Province shows that non-reef ecosystems had a similar first episode of mass extinction in the latest Permian. In the case that oceanic anoxia happened, non-reef ecosystems had a second extinction episode similar to that of reef ecosystems.
在江西修水四都镇东岭村发现了一个连续的、出露完好的二叠纪-三叠纪界线地层剖面。在剖面中有一段厚约2.1m 的地层具有指示海平面下降的岩石组构。这段地层的底部为红色的碳酸盐颗粒岩。红色是颗粒表面的红色铁染,成分为褐铁矿,是出露地表风化形成的。这层红色颗粒岩之上有约2.0 m 的去白云石化灰岩,其中保留了原来粉晶白云石的晶形。去白云石化作用是白云岩受淡水影响而发生的,指示海平面下降事件。这段地层之上是厚1m 的颗粒岩和灰泥岩,代表浅水潮下环境。其上是二叠系-三叠系的界线。这段地层之下的地层中生物丰富多样,并且有复(蜒)、钙藻等大绝灭前的生物。这段地层及其以上的地层中生物种类很少,(蜓)、钙藻等已经消失,表明集群绝灭事件开始于这段地层之下,生物大绝灭的发生与海平面下降事件的发生是基本同时的。由此认为,可能是海平面下降有关的环境剧变事件引发了二叠纪末的集群绝灭事件。
The microbial communities blooming immediately after the end-Permian mass extinction represent abnormally extr...
JIANG HongXia,WU YaSheng~+ & CAI ChunFang Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100029,China
