Trace element geochemistry of microbialites: towards an independent record of biogenicity, microbial communities, and seawater chemistry. A vast amount of Australia's mineral wealth is held in rocks of Precambrian age, yet those rocks are notoriously difficult to date and correlate owing to the rarity of fossils. Successful discrimination of different microbialites using biochemically sensitive trace elements will provide a firm basis and rationale for stromatolite biostratigraphy and greatly in ....Trace element geochemistry of microbialites: towards an independent record of biogenicity, microbial communities, and seawater chemistry. A vast amount of Australia's mineral wealth is held in rocks of Precambrian age, yet those rocks are notoriously difficult to date and correlate owing to the rarity of fossils. Successful discrimination of different microbialites using biochemically sensitive trace elements will provide a firm basis and rationale for stromatolite biostratigraphy and greatly increase our ability to understand the geological evolution and distribution of Precambrian rocks and resources. Additionally, a better understanding of the information content of stromatolites will yield considerable insight into the origin of life on Earth and its relationship to Earth's evolving chemistry and environment. Read moreRead less
Cyclostome bryozoans: Their use as paleoceanographic, paleoclimatologic and paleoenvironmental proxies throughout the cenozoic of southern Australia. The unravelling of ocean evolution relies largely on data from fossils - geochemical proxies of ancient oceans. Southern Australia contains an inrivalled 45 million-year old record of cool-water carbonate sedimentation and thus global paleoceanography. Currently, the only proxies available in these extensive sediments are brachiopods and planktic f ....Cyclostome bryozoans: Their use as paleoceanographic, paleoclimatologic and paleoenvironmental proxies throughout the cenozoic of southern Australia. The unravelling of ocean evolution relies largely on data from fossils - geochemical proxies of ancient oceans. Southern Australia contains an inrivalled 45 million-year old record of cool-water carbonate sedimentation and thus global paleoceanography. Currently, the only proxies available in these extensive sediments are brachiopods and planktic foraminfers. However, these sediments contain prolific low-magnesium calcite bryozoans, particularly cyclostomes, that could be used instead. This research will assess such bryozoans and test their usefulness and reliability, utilising existing extensive modern marine and Tertiary samples, data bases and sections. Such potential proxies would be globally useful for limestones from the last 500My.Read moreRead less