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Biological Innovations and the Sedimentary Record

  • Conference paper
Patterns of Change in Earth Evolution

Part of the book series: Dahlem Workshop Reports Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences Research Reports ((DAHLEM PHYSICAL,volume 5))

Abstract

Biological innovations which are likely to have influenced the evolution of the biosphere and to have been recorded in the sedimentary record include the invention of oxygen-liberating photosynthesis, those of iron oxidation and of the other chemolithotrophic activities of bacteria (nitrogen fixation, nitrate reduction, and sulfate reduction), the development of metazoans, the invention of burrowing, the evolution of calcareous and of siliceous skeletons, the colonization of the lands, the appearance of calcareous skeletons in the plankton, the appearance of siliceous skeletons in the phytoplankton, the invention of flowers, and the evolution of conceptual thought. Some of these are well recorded in sediments, others remain to be identified or seem not to have left the predicted effects. Inventions appeared in batches correlated with events in lithospheric evolution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    A. G. Fischer

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  1. A. G. Fischer
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H. D. Holland A. F. Trendall

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© 1984 Dr. S. Bernhard, Dahlem Konferenzen

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Fischer, A.G. (1984). Biological Innovations and the Sedimentary Record. In: Holland, H.D., Trendall, A.F. (eds) Patterns of Change in Earth Evolution. Dahlem Workshop Reports Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences Research Reports, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69317-5_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69317-5_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-69319-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69317-5

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