New sponge spicules from the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition in deep-water facies of South China

Sponges have great significance for understanding the origin and evolution of metazoans. Biomarker fossil and molecular clock studies suggest a Precambrian origin of sponges, but no unambiguous fossil of sponge spicules have been recovered from units older than the early Cambrian to date. Here, we report abundant siliceous spicules from Ediacaran-Cambrian transition strata, representing a deep-slope setting on the southeastern margin of the Yangtze Block in South China. The first appearance of monaxon spicules in the Sifangjing section is in the lower Liuchapo Formation (uppermost Ediacaran), from below the Basal Cambrian Carbon isotope Excursion (BACE), which is consistent with the timing of their initial appearance in shallow-platform settings (e.g., the Three Gorges area). These spicules are monaxons that are isolated or aggregated as spiculate bundles, the latter having a structural arrangement consistent with construction by demosponges. Polyaxial spicules first appear in phosphatic nodules of the basal Jiumenchong Formation (early Cambrian Stage 2). Relative to shallow-water settings, the appearance of polyaxial spicules in deep-water slope settings was delayed (-10 Ma). Oxygenation of anoxic deep watermasses and increasing concentrations of dissolved Si in seawater during Cambrian Stage 2 may have facilitated the expansion of the Hexactinellida into deep-water settings. The triaene spicules from the basal Jiumenchong Formation are the oldest (-522 to 525 Ma) Tetractinellida spicule fossils identified to date.