Abstract
The intrinsic palaeobiological importance of planktonic algal microfossils of Proterozoic and early Cambrian age has been widely documented1–8. The evidence supporting the biostrati-graphical significance of planktonic microfossils in the correlation of Upper Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian sequences has also been assessed1,4–8. We contend here that both within-flora (α) and total (γ) taxonomic diversity trends for late Proterozoic planktonic microfossils indicate that a distinct radiation of presumed cyst-forming eukaryotic plankters occurred during late Riphean and early Vendian (used here in the sense introduced in refs 1, 8). Following this, a mid- to late Vendian extinction episode reduced observable plankton diversity by some 70%, extirpating most morphologically complex, pre-existing taxa. A second radiation restored high plankton diversity levels, but not until well into the early Cambrian.
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Vidal, G., Knoll, A. Radiations and extinctions of plankton in the late Proterozoic and early Cambrian. Nature 297, 57–60 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/297057a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/297057a0
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