Biosphère,biosphères…

Résumé

En douze paragraphes, qui balaient l’âge de la Terre depuis ses origines jusqu’à Homo sapiens, nous tenterons de montrer la richesse conceptuelle qu’engendre l’étude de la biosphère actuelle et des biosphères passées. © 2000 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS     

Furongian (upper Cambrian) Guole Konservat-Lagerst?tte from South China

The Guole biota contains common shelly fossils and some exceptionally well-preserved soft-bodied fossils. Stratigraphically, it is located in the mudstones and siltstones of the Sandu Formation near Guole Town, Jingxi County, Guangxi, South China. It is the first Furongian (late Cambrian) Burgess Shale-type biota found in the world, thereby filling the gap between middle Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Burgess Shale-type Lagerst?tten. Preliminary studies suggest that the Guole biota includes approximately seven metazoan groups as well as algae. These will provide important new evolutionary and ecological information.     

A preliminary note on the dispersal of the Cambrian Burgess Shale-type faunas

The common or similar elements of faunas shared by the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna and the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale fauna are listed in a generic level so as to have a better understanding of the palaeogeographic relationship between the South China Block and Laurentia. The Burgess Shale-type faunas probably had a worldwide distribution during the interval ranging from the Late Tommotian to Atdabanian. The geographic and biological contributions to the cosmopolitan geographic distribution of the Burgess Shale-type faunas are discussed. However, newly developed pelagic larvae in many phyla, which probably acquired their first bloom in the Cambrian, might have promoted the dispersal.     

试论动物非矿化组织的保存

动物非矿物化组织在特异埋葬条件下可保存为化石。缺氧和快速埋葬有利于非矿化组织的保存，但不能阻止微生物的破坏作用。无菌环境下可保存软躯体组织，但在构造变动和古气候变迁等因素的影响下会彻底破坏，不可能在地质历史时期长期存在。最稳定的保存形式是与成岩作用有关的保存类型和以碳化有机质薄膜形式的保存类型。与动物非矿化组织保存有关的常见成岩自生矿物有磷酸盐矿物、碳酸盐矿物和黄铁矿等。其中，磷酸盐矿物在成岩作用过程中结晶最早，可以保存动物的微细构造。这些矿物可以矿化交代动物的肉质和角质使其成为矿化实体；也可以呈假形、铸型或铸模等形式保存。布尔吉斯页岩保存类型中，非矿化组织以碳化有机质薄膜或含水的颧硅酸盐矿物两种形式保存。前可能与粘土矿物吸附有机质、阻止酶的降解作用有关，后可能由自生粘土矿物的交代作用造成。     

Kaili Biota: A Taphonomic Window on Diversification of Metazoans from the Basal Middle Cambrian: Guizhou, China

1 Introduction The Burgess Shale Biota was discovered in the Cambrian strata of western Canada by American paleontologist C. D. Walcott in 1909 (Walcott, 1911). The fauna contains more than 140 metazoan genera (Robison, 1991, Briggs et al., 1994), with a preservational range from hard skeletal parts, non-mineralized remains and internal soft-tissue and soft-body remains. Following that discovery up to 40 similar taphonomic locations have been found globally in Lower and Middle Cambrian …     

Burgess and Hoyt in Los Angeles: testing the Chicago models in an automotive-age American city

For much of the twentieth century, the “Chicago models” proposed by E. W. Burgess in the 1920s, Homer Hoyt in the 1930s, and Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in 1945 dominated discussions of the spatial form of cities in the United States. The changes that have subsequently occurred in American urban geography naturally raise questions about the continuing relevance of the models. In recent years, a “Los Angeles School” in geography and urban studies has dismissed the Chicago models as outdated. But the critics have provided little empirical evidence in support of their claims. Identifying exogenous amenities—those of distance from the city center, terrain, and waterfronts—as central elements in the Chicago models, we analyzed the relation of these factors to the patterns of income in Los Angeles and Chicago using spatial statistical regression. The newer, automobile-age city closely follows, while the older city of Chicago deviates substantially from, the patterns predicted in the classical Chicago models. These models may best describe the most recently built American cities and may be more relevant than ever today in explaining the dynamics of urban form.     

Cambrian Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten in South China: Distribution and significance

The final assembly of the supercontinent Gondwana during the Pan-African orogenic episodes (ca. 550–520 Ma) almost simultaneously took place with the Cambrian explosion that is best manifested by a number of Cambrian Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten in South China. The relationship between South China and Gondwana during the Cambrian is far from consensus. Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten may have potential importance for the paleogeographic reconstruction. However, such Lagerstätten have been known in large number only in Laurentia and South China, far less common in Gondwana and other continents. Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten in South China are not evenly spaced through the Cambrian. They appear to be concentrated in the Lower Cambrian, particularly in the Canglangpuian and Qiongzhusian stages, much reduced in number from the uppermost Lower Cambrian. Of ten reported such Lagerstätten, only the Kaili biota (basal Middle Cambrian) is known to be younger than Early Cambrian. This reduction could be explained by the fact that vast areas of siliciclastic facies in both the western plate interior (platform) and the eastern slope basin during most time of Early Cambrian (Meishucunian to Canglangpuian) is evolved into carbonate facies at the very end of Early Cambrian (Longwangmiaoian). It has been known from this study that both siliciclastic platform facies and slope basin facies (shale basin) could preserve soft-bodied fossils. Cambrian Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten in South China are of great significance for providing a sequences of exceptionally preserved biota in a chronological succession. Comparison of such Lagerstätten in a chronological framework may give us more details on the Cambrian explosion events.     

A new ophiuroid (Geocoma schoentalensis sp. nov.) from the Middle Jurassic of northwestern Switzerland and remarks on the family Aplocomidae Hess 1965

A new ophiuroid species from the Hauptrogenstein Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) of the Rehhag ridge near Schöntal, northwestern Switzerland, is described based on 34 specimens. The impression of an indeterminate astropectinid sea star has also been found. The fully articulated specimens have been smothered by mobile oolitic dunes or sandwaves. The site can be genetically classified as an obrution deposit and belongs to the widely recognized “Hauptrogenstein type”. The remains are assigned to the genus Geocoma d’Orbigny 1850, best known from the type species, G. carinata (Münster), from the Tithonian Plattenkalk of Zandt. As suggested by Kutscher (1997) this species also includes Ophiocten kelheimense Boehm 1889, now documented by numerous well-preserved specimens from the Plattenkalk of Hienheim. Kutscher assigned the Hienheim specimens to the genus Sinosura Hess 1964 and used both names though G. carinata has priority. Despite rather small differences Sinosura is retained as a valid genus besides Geocoma, and both are placed in the family Aplocomidae Hess 1965. Geocoma and Sinosura share small adpressed arm spines with Aplocoma d’Orbigny 1852. Aplocoma is represented by a number of Triassic and Jurassic species, and the subfamily Aplocominae is proposed herein for the three genera. A second subfamily, Ophiopetrinae, is proposed for the genera Ophiopetra Enay &; Hess 1962 and Ophiohybris Hess 1964, and is characterized by larger, erect arm spines.     

Priapulid worms from the Cambrian of China shed light on reproduction in early animals

In the recent years, exceptional fossil sites have revealed astonishing details on the anatomy, lifestyles and behaviour of Cambrian animals but surprisingly, very little is known about one of their most vital features, reproduction. We describe here in situ eggs (clusters of 3 to 30 oocytes) in the tube-dwelling priapulid worm Paraselkirkia sinica from the Cambrian Stage 3 Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte (ca. 514 Ma, South China). These oocytes were accommodated within paired tubular ovaries located in the posterior half of the primary body cavity as in modern meiobenthic priapulid worms, thus indicating that the general organization of female tubular gonads in priapulid worms has remained virtually unchanged for half a billion years. Our findings provide for the first time, key information on the reproductive organs and strategies of early ecdysozoans, a huge animal clade that dominated Cambrian marine ecosystems and accounts for a large part of today's biodiversity (e.g. arthropods). Moreover, we also emphasize the critical role of ecology on the reproductive strategies and lifestyles of both modern and Cambrian worms.