Bioturbation in matgrounds at Lake Bogoria in the Kenya Rift Valley: implications for interpreting the heterogeneous early Cambrian seafloor |
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Authors: | Jennifer J. Scott Luis A. Buatois M. Gabriela Mángano Robin W. Renaut R. Bernhart Owen |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, T3E 6K6 Canada;2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2 Canada;3. Department of Geography, 12/F, Academic and Administration Building, 15 Baptist University Road Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong |
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Abstract: | Modern burrowing organisms feed on microbial organic matter in matgrounds near hot springs on the margins of Lake Bogoria, a saline alkaline lake in the Kenya Rift Valley. The burrowers produce a low-diversity trace assemblage similar to those produced by undermat miners during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. Despite obvious differences in body plans and phylogenetic affinities, these modern animals feed on microbes in similar ways to those inferred for primitive bilaterians. With increasing distance from hot-spring vents, outflow channels and adjacent matgrounds, the diversity and depth of the traces increase and mixgrounds become dominant. This modern extreme environment gives clues for interpreting the heterogeneous early Cambrian seafloor, with: (1) the restriction of ‘pre-agronomic revolution’ matground substrates; and (2) expansion of adjacent ‘post-agronomic revolution’ mixground areas. |
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Keywords: | Cyanobacteria hot spring ichnology insect microbial mat saline lake staphylinid traces |
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