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Marine snow fuels an opportunistic small food web in the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstätte

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Abstract

Meiofauna are minute organisms that dominate the ‘small food web’—communities which, in modern sediments, play a key role in ecosystem functioning through benthic–pelagic coupling and carbon drawdown. Despite their importance today, the ecological contribution of such communities in ancient settings remains poorly understood, largely due to the sparse and fragmentary nature of their fossil record. Here we document trace fossils of a meiofaunal ecosystem that flourished in the immediate aftermath of the end-Ordovician extinction event, preserved in the Soom Shale Lagerstätte, South Africa. Micro computed tomography scanning reveals three-dimensionally preserved ichnofossils including two burrow/trail morphotypes and microcoprolites that are attributed to a low-diversity meiofaunal benthic community, dominated by nematodes and foraminifera. The ichnofossils consistently occur within fossilized marine-snow-bearing beds, where there is a clear pattern in their distribution and frequency of occurrence. This pattern mirrors behavioural responses of meiofauna to fluxes in delivery of organic matter to the sea floor recorded in modern oxygen-limited marine environments. The Soom Shale assemblage provides a remarkable insight into, not only one of the oldest meiofaunal trace-fossil records, but also the earliest account of an ancient behavioural response to episodic phytoplankton blooms.

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Fig. 1: Location map and geological context.
Fig. 2: Fossilized marine snow, otherwise known as organomineralic aggregates (OMA), preserved within facies 1.
Fig. 3: Trace fossils and polyframboid-filled endocasts of benthic foraminifera.
Fig. 4: Occurrence and distribution patterns of trace fossils and OMAs within distinct laminae.
Fig. 5: A modern analogue for interpreting Soom meiofaunal trace fossils and OMAs.

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Data availability

The trace-fossil measurements and simplified borehole log are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.30136477.v1 (ref. 73). The supplementary μCT scan dataset is available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.25375/uct.30112654.v1 (ref. 74) and is available under restricted access as per the Iziko South African Museum standard operating procedures. These data may be obtained from the lead author upon reasonable request. The borehole core containing in situ trace fossils is held at the Iziko South African Museum.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the following funding agencies: National Research Foundation, South Africa through the Thuthuka grant 121894 and African Origins Platform AOP240326210874 (C.B. and E.M.B.); Iziko Museums of South Africa (C.B.); The Council for Geoscience (C.B.); National Geographic grant GEFNE90-13 (S.E.G. and C.B.); the European Union (A.E.A. and A.M.) and La Région Nouvelle Aquitaine (A.E.A. and A.M.); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grants 311727–20 (M.G.M.) and 422931-20/25 (L.A.B.); George J. McLeod Enhancement Chair in Geology (M.G.M.). We also acknowledge the PLATINA platform of the IC2MP Institute (University of Poitiers) and the Central Analytical Facility (CAF), Stellenbosch University, for access to µCT scanners. We further thank M. Tshibalanganda, A. du Plessis, S. Le Roux and L. Coetzer for their technical assistance and support at the CAF and we gratefully acknowledge the du Plessis family at Holfontein for granting land access.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

    Claire Browning

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Claire Browning & Emese M. Bordy

  3. School of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Sarah E. Gabbott

  4. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    M. Gabriela Mángano & Luis A. Buatois

  5. University of Poitiers, CNRS, Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers-IC2MP, Poitiers, France

    Abderrazak El Albani & Arnaud Mazurier

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  1. Claire Browning
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Contributions

C.B., S.E.G. and E.M.B. conceptualized and designed the study. C.B., A.E.A. and A.M. scanned the trace fossils and visualized the scan data. C.B. and S.E.G. performed the petrographic analysis. C.B. and A.M. produced illustrations and figures. C.B., S.E.G., M.G.M., L.A.B. and E.M.B. performed the ichnological analysis and description. C.B. wrote the first draft of the paper and all authors contributed to writing, editing and approval of the final paper.

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Claire Browning or Sarah E. Gabbott.

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Browning, C., Gabbott, S.E., Mángano, M.G. et al. Marine snow fuels an opportunistic small food web in the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Lagerstätte.
Nat Ecol Evol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02923-0

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