Possible poriferan body fossils in early Neoproterozoic microbial reefs

Molecular phylogeny indicates that metazoans (animals) emerged early in the Neoproterozoic era1, but physical evidence is lacking. The search for animal fossils from the Proterozoic eon is hampered by uncertainty about what physical characteristics to expect. Sponges are the most basic known animal type2,3; it is possible that body fossils of hitherto-undiscovered Proterozoic metazoans might resemble aspect(s) of Phanerozoic fossil sponges. Vermiform microstructure4,5, a complex petrographic feature in Phanerozoic reefal and microbial carbonates, is now known to be the body fossil of nonspicular keratosan demosponges6–10. This Article presents petrographically identical vermiform microstructure from approximately 890-million-year-old reefs. The millimetric-to-centimetric vermiform-microstructured organism lived only on, in and immediately beside reefs built by calcifying cyanobacteria (photosynthesizers), and occupied microniches in which these calcimicrobes could not live. If vermiform microstructure is in fact the fossilized tissue of keratose sponges, the material described here would represent the oldest body-fossil evidence of animals known to date, and would provide the first physical evidence that animals emerged before the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event and survived through the glacial episodes of the Cryogenian period.

First Finding of the Orbicular Gabbroids in the Ukrainian Antarctic Station Area (Wilhelm Archipelago, West Antarctica)

A new occurrence of igneous rocks with an orbicular structure was discovered by the authors in West Antarctica. The place of finding is Hovgaard Island in the Wilhelm Archipelago located near the Graham Coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Until now, not a single manifestation of these rare rocks was known in this region. Usually orbicular rocks are formed under the condition of local "coincidence" of many geological and petrogenetic factors. The study of the geological position, texture features and mineral composition of the orbicular rocks on Hovgaard Island was carried out in order to create their primary petrographic description. It was found that orbiculites are exposed in a small area, about 200 m2, in the field of amphibolized gabbroids and their intrusive breccias. The occurrence and textures of the orbiculites indicate that their crystallization occurred at the hypabyssal depth. Probably, this occurrence is a marginal facies of a small gabbroid intrusion, some parts of which are exposed on the adjacent coastal areas of Hovgaard Island. The studies performed have shown that the orbiculites of Hovgaard Island belong to the rarest petrographic representatives of these rocks namely orbicular gabbroids. In their petrographic feature, they differ markedly from the famous French napoleonites (corsites) exposed on the Corsica Island. The mineral composition of the orbicules is represented by calcium plagioclase (An88-97), hornblende (#Mg = 0.77-0.81), clinopyroxene (Wo48-50En43-47Fs5-8), spinel (Sp62-72Hrc14-20Mt12-17), actinolite, phlogopite, chlorite, magnetite and apatite. The interorbicular matrix has a gabbroid composition and a porphyritic texture. It differs from orbicules in somewhat less calcium plagioclase and less magnesian hornblende, as well as in the absence of spinel. In view of the rarity of orbicular gabbroids and the specificity of the described manifestation, it is proposed that the orbicular gabbro on Hovgaard Island be considered as a new petrographic variety of the gabbroid family. The name "hovgaardite" is recommended for the name of this variety of orbicular gabbro.