Implications for Ediacaran biological evolution from the ca. 602 Ma Lantian biota in China

Abstract

The morphologically differentiated benthic macrofossils of algae and putative animal affinities of the Lantian biota in China represents the oldest known Ediacaran macroscopic eukaryotic assemblage. Although the biota provides remarkable insights into the early evolution of complex macroeukaryotes in the Ediacaran, the uncertainty in its age has hampered any robust biological evaluation. We resolve this issue by applying a petrographic-guided rhenium-osmium (Re-Os) organic-bearing sedimentary unit study on the Lantian biota. This work confines a minimum age for the first appearance of the Lantian biota to 602 ± 7 Ma (2σ, including decay constant uncertainty). This new Re-Os date confirms that the Lantian biota is of early–mid Ediacaran age and temporally distinct from the typical Ediacaran macrobiotas. Our results indicate that the differentiation and radiation of macroscopic eukaryotes, and the evolution of the primitive, erect epibenthic ecosystem, occurred in the early–mid Ediacaran and were associated with highly fluctuating oceanic redox conditions. The radiogenic initial 187Os/188Os ratios derived from the Lantian (1.14 ± 0.02) and other Ediacaran shales invoke oxidative weathering of upper continental crust in the early–middle Ediacaran, which may have stimulated the evolution of life and oceanic-atmospheric oxygenation. Integrated with published Ediacaran chronological and geochemical data, our new Re-Os geochemical study of the Lantian black shale provides a refined, time-calibrated record of environment and eukaryote evolution during the Ediacaran.