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Science 1 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5829, p. 1302
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137284
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Brevia

Seawater Chemistry and Early Carbonate Biomineralization

Susannah M. Porter

The first appearances of aragonite and calcite skeletons in 18 animal clades that independently evolved mineralization during the late Ediacaran through the Ordovician (~550 to 444 million years ago) correspond to intervals when seawater chemistry favored aragonite and calcite precipitation, respectively. Skeletal mineralogies rarely changed once skeletons evolved, despite subsequent changes in seawater chemistry. Thus, the selection of carbonate skeletal minerals appears to have been dictated by seawater chemistry at the time a clade first acquired its mineralized skeleton.

Department of Earth Science, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.

E-mail: porter{at}geol.ucsb.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)