The Role of Red Algae in Abrupt Appearance of Animals in the Early Cambrian on Siberian Platform ()
ABSTRACT
Calcified rock-forming marine filamented benthic micro- and macrophytes of Dzhelindia Kolosov, 1970 (Figure 1(а)) and Chaptchaica Kolosov, 1975 (Figure 1(b)) genera, thrived in Neoproterozoic (1000-541 million years ago) Siberia together with cyanobacteria. Their belonging to Rhodophyta is well-grounded. These and other Neoproterozoic rodofits, as well as Epiphyton Bornemann 1886 (Figure 1(c)) and other Early Cambrian (541-513 million years ago) benthic algae, oxygenating floor of epicontinental sea basin, formed conditions, favorable for the animals. In combination with other biotic, and such abiotic factors as: equatorial position and tectonic feature of Siberian platform; volcanism; transgression of the sea; diversity of ecologic niches, these conditions were prerequisites of skeleton and shell acquisition by Early Cambrian animals, and as a consequence, accelerated morphologic evolution, increased diversity of taxons of different groups of animals.
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P. Kolosov, "The Role of Red Algae in Abrupt Appearance of Animals in the Early Cambrian on Siberian Platform,"
American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 4 No. 12B, 2013, pp. 60-64. doi:
10.4236/ajps.2013.412A2008.