Chi Fru, Ernest ![]() |
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Abstract
It is thought that the global predominance of small-size unicellular prokaryotic life in the oceans until the emergence of large-size multicellular organisms to ecological dominance in the Ediacaran Ocean after 635 million years ago (Ma), was partly constrained by paleo-dynamic nutrient limitation, with phosphorus (P) being the principal limiting resource. Here we couple an episode of intense submarine hydrothermal alteration of a nutrient-rich seafloor reservoir to the collision of the Congo-São Francisco cratons at ∼2100 Ma, to unravel a paleo-geodynamic incident of seawater P enrichment in the Paleoproterozoic Francevillian sub-basin. We propose that this previously unrecognized local pulse in dissolved seawater P concentration, of comparable magnitude to Ediacaran seawater levels, set the stage for Earth’s earliest biospheric experimentation towards macrobiological complexity ∼2100 million years ago.
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Schools > Earth and Environmental Sciences |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
ISSN: | 0301-9268 |
Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 10 June 2024 |
Date of Acceptance: | 25 May 2024 |
Last Modified: | 31 May 2025 01:45 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169710 |
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