DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjq7
title: On the origin of metazoan reefs

description: Presented here is a dataset of all occurrences of palaeoecology (carbonate
 platform setting, hydrodynamic energy, substrate preferences, reef
 setting, and ecological growth position) or earliest reef-associated
 metazoans from the Ediacaran (550-538 million years ago, Ma), and the
 earliest Cambrian of the Siberian Platform (527-521.5 Ma). To quantify the
 range of ecological settings occupied by early skeletal metazoans, whether
 ecological setting was conserved in any given species, and the
 distribution of substrate preferences, we collated data from all known
 global in situ (= in life, growth position) occurrences of the terminal
 Ediacaran (ca. 550-533 Ma) metazoan Cloudina spp. (16 occurrences), and
 from mainly in situ occurrences of archaeocyath sponge species (n=43
 species) and some additional sessile reef-associated groups (coralomorphs,
 radiocyaths) from the earliest Cambrian (pre-Tommotian and Tommotian, late
 Fortunian – Cambrian Stage 2, 527-521 Ma), from the Lena-Aldan area on the
 Siberia Platform (261 occurrences). We define an occurrence as the
 presence of an in situ assemblage of species in a stratum
 occupying a limited stratigraphic interval at any given locality
 (Zhuravlev et al., 2015).  Each such occurrence was studied to
 identify species, sedimentary facies and their ecological, spatial
 relationships. Lower Cambrian data were subdivided into five time
 intervals. These data can be potentially be re-purposed for other
 analyses. There are no legal or ethical considerations.
description: # On the origin of metazoan reefs Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjq7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjq7) ##
 Description of the data and file structure The dataset consists of
 supplementary text and references (ESM_Zhuravlev_and_Wood.docx) and an
 Excel data table (Table_S1_Zhuravlev_and_Wood.xlsx) Summary: To quantify
 the range of ecological settings occupied by early skeletal metazoans,
 whether ecological setting was conserved in any given species, and the
 distribution of substrate preferences, we collated data from all known
 global *in situ* (= in life, growth position) occurrences of the terminal
 Ediacaran (ca. 550-533 Ma) metazoan *Cloudina* spp. (16 occurrences), and
 from mainly *in situ* occurrences of archaeocyath sponge species (n=43
 species) and some additional sessile reef-associated groups (coralomorphs,
 radiocyaths) from the earliest Cambrian (pre-Tommotian and Tommotian, late
 Fortunian – Cambrian Stage 2, 527-521 Ma), from the Lena-Aldan area on the
 Siberia Platform (261 occurrences). We define an occurrence as the
 presence of an *in situ* assemblage of species in a stratum occupying a
 limited stratigraphic interval at any given locality (Zhuravlev et al.,
 2015). Each such occurrence was studied to identify species, sedimentary
 facies, and their ecological and spatial relationships.      Lower
 Cambrian data were subdivided into five intervals following small shelly
 fossil and archaeocyath biostratigraphic zones, 527-524.5 Ma
 (pre-Tommotian (Fortunian) – *Watsonella crosbyi – Aldanella
 attleborensis* Zone), 524.5-523 Ma (Tommotian 1 (Stage 2) –
 *Nochoroicyathus sunnaginicus* Zone), 523-522.5 Ma (Tommotian 2 (Stage 2)
 – *Dokidocyathus regularis* Zone, lower subzone), 522.5-521.5 Ma
 (Tommotian 3 (Stage 2) – *Dokidocyathus regularis* Zone, upper subzone)
 and 521.5-521 Ma (Tommotian 4 (Stage 2) – *Dokidocyathus* *lenaicus* –
 *Tumuliolynthus primigenius* Zone) to create a high temporal resolution
 dataset (see Table S1; modified from Zhuravlev et al., 2015). This sample
 set covers all the different environments inhabited by archaeocyaths
 during each time interval. All metazoans were assigned to: 1) Energetic
 setting: low-medium (defined by the co-occurrence of mudstones and/or
 wackestones), and/or medium to high (defined by the co-occurrence of
 grainstones and/or packstones), 2) Substrate of attachment: microbial mats
 (thin &lt; 1 mm mats indicated by undulating layers following bedding
 plane surfaces, enriched in organic matterand lacking palaeorelief),
 and/or hard lithified (calcimicrobes (*Renalcis*), skeletal metazoans, and
 thrombolite (non-calcified cryptalgal buildups lacking lamination and
 characterized by a macroscopic clotted fabric (Aitken, 1967)), or soft
 (inferred loose unlithified mud/sediment); 3) Setting: reef, and/or
 inter-reefal (situated between reefs), or and/peri-reefal (situated
 surrounding the edges of reefs); 4) Growth position/habit: open (growing
 upwards and colonising open surfaces either within reefs or on soft
 substrates), and/or cryptic (growing downwards or sideways attached to a
 hard calcmicrobial or skeletal surface within a reef framework crypt),
 and/or aggregating (growing upwards on an open surface in a tight cluster
 of many individuals of the same species), 5) For the earliest Cambrian
 reefs, the principal facies type is following Dunham (1962) and Embry and
 Klovan (1971). These types are subdivided into the following categories
 representing different reef-building archaeocyath/calcimicrobial
 communities: archaeocyath boundstones (*Cambrocyathellus/Archaeolynthus*
 boundstone; *Cambrocyathellus* bafflestone; *Cambrocyathellus* cementstone
 (with &gt;30% early marine cements)*; Okulitchicyathus* bindstone;
 *Spinosocyathus* boundstone; *Dictyocyathus* bafflestone); *Renalcis*
 boundstone; reworked glauconitic sandstone; peri-reefal grainstone;
 *Renalcis* mud mound; calcareous-argillaceous mudstone. The sedimentology
 and detailed ecology of these assemblages have been summarised in part by
 Kruse et al. (1995), Riding & Zhuravlev (1995), and Zhuravlev et al.
 (2015), and are provided in the accompanying material for completeness.
 The data present within each sheet of the submitted dataset (file:
 Table_S1_251025.xlsx) are occurrences of fossil taxa. Sheet 1 = header -
 *Cloudina.* Ecological data from in-situ examples of the Ediacaran,
 reef-associated metazoan genus. Sheet 2 = header - Archaeocyaths.
 Ecological data of species of the early Cambrian reef-associated
 archaeocyath sponges on the Siberian Platform. Columns are as follows: * A
 - Name of taxon (genus or species) * B - Age interval in Millions of years
 * C - Locality * D/E - Depositional Setting - carbonate slope (D) and/or
 shallow (E) * F/G - Hydrodynamic energetic regime of locality -
 high-medium energy (F) and/or medium to low energy (G) * H-J - Ecology -
 reef (H),  and/or peri-reefal (I), and/or inter-reefal (J) * K/L -
 Substrate of attachment - hard (K) and/or soft (L) * M - Notes * N-P -
 Reef ecology - open surface (N), and/or cryptic (O), and/or aggregating
 (P) * Q - Reference for source data Empty cells = value of 0 (zero) ? =
 possible occurrence, i.e., inconclusive data ## Access information Other
 publicly accessible locations of the data: * References as given Data was
 derived from the following sources: * References as given