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Sedimentary Factories and Ecosystem Change in the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Interval : Insights from the Skåne Area (Southern Sweden) / Mikrobiella sedimentbildningar och ekosystemsförändring vid Trias-Juragränsen : Insikter från Skåne

The End-Triassic Extinction (ETE) has long remained one of the lesser known among the so-called “Big Five”. There exist several hypotheses regarding the probable cause of this extinction, which can mainly be divided into  events of  a decline in the rate of diversification  in the late Triassic contra a sudden and significant extinction event. Primary amongst the sudden events is the one of outgassing and climate/environmental change induced by Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism. This  study  aims to  describe  the ETE using  fluvial, lacustrine, deltaic  and  marginal-marine  microbial sedimentary  structures (MS), carbonatized microbial mats (CMM) as well as  wrinkle structures, microbially  induced  sedimentary  structures (MISS) from the latest  Triassic-  earliest  Jurassic  (TJB: Triassic-Jurassic boundary interval, Rhaetian to Hettangian) of Skåne, Southern Sweden. The MISS in these sites show a high diversity of structures, indicating microbial communities with high diversity in an environment usually dominated by bioturbating invertebrates. We observed structures that include top-surface (“Elephant skin”) and subsurface (“Kinneyia”) structures, carbon-rich fossilized microbial mats, microbial sideritic concretions, sideritized microbial mats, stromatolite-like layers and oncoids. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) sampling also revealed structures related to the presence of both coccoidal and filamentous cyanobacteria.  Overall,  the diversity in observed structures indicate a thriving microbial community, with diversified and abundant ichnofossils or body fossils of possible bioturbators only observed in the early Rhaetian and younger Mid-Late Hettangian samples of deltaic or marginal-marine affinities. The lack of metazoan communities to such an extent indicates that the local environment could have reversed to a pre-Substrate Revolution state. The occurrence of abundant and  diversified  microbial structures in the studied  TJB  section,  representing  a relatively  short time interval, reflects anachronistic facies and development of abnormal biota. This supports the occurrence of several environmental distresses (abnormal hydrochemical and physical conditions) on the Triassic-Jurassic boundary interval, in turn lending credence to the hypothesis of an abrupt climactic event such as possibly that of CAMP volcanism. / <p>Presentation was carried out online over zoom due to the at the time ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.</p> / Resurrecting a lost world in Skåne: new light on the end-Triassic mass extinction and the origin of the dinosaur dominated ecosystem / Dinosaur grave from Skåne: microbiology, taphonomy and paleomolecules of exceptionally preserved theropod remains

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-457594
Date January 2021
CreatorsNesset Mattsson, Gustav
PublisherUppsala universitet, Paleobiologi
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationExamensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 1650-6553 ; 526

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