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| Archeosistemi | |
|---|---|
| Name | Archeosistemi |
| Type | Conceptual paleobiogeographic unit |
| Period | Precambrian–Phanerozoic |
| Region | Global |
Archeosistemi is a proposed framework for describing ancient, persistent assemblages of biotic, sedimentary, and geochemical signatures identified in the rock record. The concept has been used in comparative studies linking stratigraphy, paleobiology, and tectonics across disparate regions such as the Canadian Shield, Siberian Craton, Amazonian Craton, Baltic Shield, and Gondwana. Researchers working in institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Geological Survey of Canada, Russian Academy of Sciences, and University of Cambridge have applied the term in correlation studies with formations such as the Gunflint Chert, Ediacara Member, Burgess Shale, Doushantuo Formation, and Isua Greenstone Belt.
The name combines classical roots reminiscent of coinages used in Stratigraphy, Paleontology, and Biogeography and was popularized in review syntheses published by teams at the Royal Society and the Geological Society of London alongside case studies from the Acasta Gneiss and Shaler Supergroup. Definitions vary among researchers affiliated with the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Paleontological Association, and the International Union of Geological Sciences but converge on describable packages of fossil taxa, lithofacies, and isotopic signatures analogous to named units like the Cambrian Explosion, Ordovician Radiation, and Devonian Reef Complexes.
Archeosistemi are situated within stratigraphic frameworks developed for classic successions such as the Burgess Shale, Chengjiang Biota, Mazon Creek Fossil Beds, Solnhofen Limestone, and La Brea Tar Pits and are invoked in discussions of major events like the Great Oxidation Event, Snowball Earth, and the Permian–Triassic extinction event. They integrate evidence from studies led at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences, and Yale Peabody Museum that document associations among taxa such as Trilobite, Ediacaran biota, Brachiopod, Cephalopod, and Tetrapod in particular sedimentary contexts like carbonate platforms, siliciclastic shelves, and black shale basins exemplified by the Mancos Shale and Posidonia Shale.
Authors categorize Archeosistemi by criteria analogous to schemes used for the Tethys Ocean faunal provinces, the Laurentia–Baltica realms, and the Gondwanan provinciality, producing classes that reference endemism patterns seen in the Rhaetian, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Silurian, and Cambrian records. Proposed types include “faunal-dominant” units paralleling descriptions in monographs on the Cedar Creek Formation and Morrison Formation, “geochemically distinct” units compared with datasets from the GEOTRACES program and the International Ocean Discovery Program, and “lithofacies-bound” units akin to typologies developed for the Clifton Formation and Wenlock Series.
Study employs integrated approaches used by teams at the United States Geological Survey, British Geological Survey, and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris combining biostratigraphy using indexes like Graptolite, Conodont, Ammonite, and Foraminifer zonations with chemostratigraphy leveraging isotopic systems including carbon isotope stratigraphy, strontium isotope stratigraphy, uranium–lead dating, and argon–argon dating. Fieldwork in classic localities such as the Appalachian Basin, Tethyan strata, Fennoscandian Shield, and Siberian Platform is complemented by laboratory analyses at facilities like the SNOLAB-affiliated labs and synchrotron beamlines at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
Case studies emphasize Archeosistemi in regions documented by agencies such as the Geological Survey of India, Geological Survey of Japan, Geological Survey of Brazil, Geological Survey of Australia, and the United States Geological Survey. Notable examples include assemblages comparable to the Ediacara Hills faunas, Cambrian communities in the Chengjiang Biota, Devonian reef systems of the Gondwana margin, Permian basins in the Ural Mountains, and Mesozoic coastal systems along the Western Interior Seaway.
Proponents argue Archeosistemi aid reconstructions of palaeobiogeography akin to landmark syntheses on the Cambrian Explosion, Mesozoic Marine Revolution, and end-Permian recovery and inform models of environmental change tied to events like the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event and the Neoproterozoic oxygenation. Studies published by groups at the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum, London correlate Archeosistemi with dispersal pathways implicated in work on Laurasia–Gondwana connectivity, continental uplift recorded in the Himalayan Orogeny and Andean orogeny, and basin evolution documented for the North Sea Basin.
Critics from forums at the International Paleontological Association, the European Geosciences Union, and journals associated with the American Geophysical Union challenge the operational criteria and compare the term to established constructs like biogeographic provinces, facies models in the Severn Group, and biozones defined using Index fossils. Debates center on reproducibility across datasets from the Canadian Shield, Baltic Shield, Siberian Platform, and Australian Shield and on whether Archeosistemi adds heuristic value beyond existing frameworks used by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and regional geological surveys.
Category:Paleontology Category:Stratigraphy Category:Geology