Taphonomy of lacustrine fish fossils of the Parnaíba Basin, northeastern Brazil: Spatial and causative relations of Konservat Lagerstätten in West Gondwana during Jurassic-Cretaceous

Abstract

Fossil bonanzas called Konservat Lagerstätten provide geological windows to the ecology of ancient life communities. These deposits often occur as cluster of fossil localities with similar geographic locations, geological ages and facies, as the fossils were generally preserved during special periods and large-scale events in Earth history within environments with exceptional taphonomic conditions. This work applied petrological and geochemical analyses to evaluate the taphonomic pathway of a Konservat Lagerstätten in the Muzinho Shale, Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous of the Parnaíba Basin, northeastern Brazil. These lacustrine deposits include interbedded limestones and fossiliferous black shales deposited in anoxic, non-euxinic and saline environment. Black shales contain articulated skeletons of fish fossils, characterised by three-dimensional preservation of the skeletal tissue. The polytypical assemblage includes diverse ontogenetic stages and is concentrated in a specific stratigraphic level. Mass mortality was triggered by anoxia probably established by stratified water column, high C flux and thermocline demise. The specimens are encased in kerogen-bearing siliciclastic laminae and cementstone microfacies, both microbially-induced. The fossils were cemented by eodiagenetic poikilotopic calcite that filled the skeletal articulation, including bone trabeculae and voids originally filled by bone marrow. The short distance, similar fossil assemblages, ages and coincident palaeoenvironments suggest that Muzinho Shale (Parnaíba Basin) and Crato Formation (Araripe Basin) compose a cluster of exceptional preservation in West Gondwana. Lava flows and outgassing related to the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) resulted in the subaereal exposure of volcanic plains, acid rains and subsequent CO2 greenhouse crisis. CAMP-magmatism was especially voluminous in northern Brazilian basins, enhancing nutrient-rich waters and lacustrine eutrophication due to intensified chemical weathering in this area. Probably, other Konservat Lagerstätten remain unreported in West Gondwana. Despite similar causative events, the individual taphonomic pathways of Muzinho Shale and Crato Formation are very different, suggesting that in these cases local phenomena affected authigenesis and diagenesis.