Authors: HongXia Jiang YaSheng Wu ChunFang Cai
Publish Date: 2008/06/21
Volume: 53, Issue: 12, Pages: 1871-1879
Abstract
The microbial communities blooming immediately after the endPermian 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 PermianTriassic 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 008 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 distributed 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 oxygendeficient and shallow since this photosynthetic autotrophic organism needed to live within photic zoneSupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant No 40472015 the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources China University of Geosciences Wuhan Grant No GPMR200701 the Science Foundation of China Postdoctors Grant No 20070420523
Keywords: