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Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms
Molecular clocks estimate that diatom microalgae, one of Earth’s foremost primary producers, originated near the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (200 Ma), which is close in age to the earliest, generally accepted diatom fossils of the genus Pyxidicula. During an extensive search for Jurassic diatoms from...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group UK
2023
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10192206/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37198388 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35078-8 |
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author | Bryłka, Karolina Alverson, Andrew J. Pickering, Rebecca A. Richoz, Sylvain Conley, Daniel J. |
author_facet | Bryłka, Karolina Alverson, Andrew J. Pickering, Rebecca A. Richoz, Sylvain Conley, Daniel J. |
author_sort | Bryłka, Karolina |
collection | PubMed |
description | Molecular clocks estimate that diatom microalgae, one of Earth’s foremost primary producers, originated near the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (200 Ma), which is close in age to the earliest, generally accepted diatom fossils of the genus Pyxidicula. During an extensive search for Jurassic diatoms from twenty-five sites worldwide, three sites yielded microfossils initially recognized as diatoms. After applying stringent safeguards and evaluation criteria, however, the fossils found at each of the three sites were rejected as new diatom records. This led us to systematically reexamine published evidence in support of Lower- and Middle-Jurassic Pyxidicula fossils. Although Pyxidicula resembles some extant radial centric diatoms and has character states that may have been similar to those of ancestral diatoms, we describe numerous sources of uncertainty regarding the reliability of these records. We conclude that the Lower Jurassic Pyxidicula fossils were most likely calcareous nannofossils, whereas the Middle Jurassic Pyxidicula species has been reassigned to the Lower Cretaceous and is likely a testate amoeba, not a diatom. Excluding the Pyxidicula fossils widens the gap between the estimated time of origin and the oldest abundant fossil diatom record to 75 million years. This study underscores the difficulties in discovering and validating ancient microfossils. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10192206 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-101922062023-05-19 Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms Bryłka, Karolina Alverson, Andrew J. Pickering, Rebecca A. Richoz, Sylvain Conley, Daniel J. Sci Rep Article Molecular clocks estimate that diatom microalgae, one of Earth’s foremost primary producers, originated near the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (200 Ma), which is close in age to the earliest, generally accepted diatom fossils of the genus Pyxidicula. During an extensive search for Jurassic diatoms from twenty-five sites worldwide, three sites yielded microfossils initially recognized as diatoms. After applying stringent safeguards and evaluation criteria, however, the fossils found at each of the three sites were rejected as new diatom records. This led us to systematically reexamine published evidence in support of Lower- and Middle-Jurassic Pyxidicula fossils. Although Pyxidicula resembles some extant radial centric diatoms and has character states that may have been similar to those of ancestral diatoms, we describe numerous sources of uncertainty regarding the reliability of these records. We conclude that the Lower Jurassic Pyxidicula fossils were most likely calcareous nannofossils, whereas the Middle Jurassic Pyxidicula species has been reassigned to the Lower Cretaceous and is likely a testate amoeba, not a diatom. Excluding the Pyxidicula fossils widens the gap between the estimated time of origin and the oldest abundant fossil diatom record to 75 million years. This study underscores the difficulties in discovering and validating ancient microfossils. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10192206/ /pubmed/37198388 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35078-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Bryłka, Karolina Alverson, Andrew J. Pickering, Rebecca A. Richoz, Sylvain Conley, Daniel J. Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title | Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title_full | Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title_fullStr | Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title_full_unstemmed | Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title_short | Uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
title_sort | uncertainties surrounding the oldest fossil record of diatoms |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10192206/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37198388 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35078-8 |
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