The distribution of major phosphate deposits in the Precambrian sedimentary rock record is restricted to periods that witnessed global biogeochemical changes, but the cause of this distribution is unclear. The oldest known phosphogenic event occurred around 2.0 Ga and was followed, after more than 1.3 billion years, by an even larger phosphogenic event in the Neoproterozoic. Phosphorites (phosp...

—The transition to the diverse and complex biosphere of the Ediacaran and early Paleozoic is the culmination of a complex history of tectonic, climate, and geochemical development. Although much of this rise occurred in the middle and late intervals of the Neoproterozoic Era (1000–541 million years ago [Ma]), the foundation for many of these developments was laid much earlier, during the latest...

The northern margin of the Yangtze Block (NYB) experienced distinct tectono-magmatic evolution during mid- and late-Neoproterozoic, as compared with northwestern margins (NWYB), although geodynamic mechanism remains controversial. South Qinling Belt (SQB), which forms northernmost NYB, is a significant target for studying Neoproterozoic tectonic NYB. Here we present U-Pb geochronology Lu-Hf iso...

Early Paleozoic bottom waters were mainly ferruginous, like the Neoproterozoic, with a shift to increased euxinia in Devonian.

An unusual richness of biogeochemical events is recorded in Neoproterozoic– Cambrian strata of the Death Valley region, California, United States. Eight negative carbon isotope (d13C) excursions are found in carbonate units between 1.08 Ga and the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary; four of these excursions occur in carbonates that contain textural features similar to those found globally in postgla...

The integration of fossils, phylogeny, and geochronology has resulted in an increasingly well-resolved timetable of evolution. Life appears to have taken root before the earliest known minimally metamorphosed sedimentary rocks were deposited, but for a billion years or more, evolution played out beneath an essentially anoxic atmosphere. Oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere and surface oceans...

Overview The paleogeographic reconstruction of the late Neoproterozoic assumes a marked significance due to the fact that the interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere during this time strongly influenced the evolution of life and initiated a remarkable phase of organic evolution, well documented in the rocks of this age. Time-related changes in these carbon res...

Discovery of fossils of the Ediacara biota near the top of the Spitzkopf Member at farm Swanpunt extends the known range of these remains in Namibia more than 600 m to near the sub-Cambrian unconformity. The fossiliferous beds occur approximately 100 m above a volcanic ash dated at 543 +/- 1 Ma, and thus may be the youngest Proterozoic Ediacara-type fossils reported anywhere in the world. Fossi...

The strontium isotope composition of seawater is strongly influenced on geological time scales by changes in the rates of continental weathering relative to ocean crust alteration. However, the potential of the seawater 87Sr/86Sr curve to trace globally integrated chemical weathering rates has not been fully realised because ocean 87Sr/86Sr is also influenced by the isotopic evolution of Sr sou...