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Animal bioturbation preserved in Pleistocene magadiite at Lake Magadi, Kenya Rift Valley, and its implications for the depositional environment of bedded magadiite
Article
Complete Citation
Buatois, Luis A., Renaut, Robin W., Owen, Richard B., Behrensmeyer, Anna K., and Scott, Jennifer J. 2020. "Animal bioturbation preserved in Pleistocene magadiite at Lake Magadi, Kenya Rift Valley, and its implications for the depositional environment of bedded magadiite ." Scientific Reports , 10, (1) Article 6794. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63505-7 .
Abstract
Magadiite, a rare hydrous sodium-silicate mineral NaSi7O13(OH)3·4(H2O)], was discovered about 50 years ago in sediments around Lake Magadi, a hypersaline alkaline lake fed by hot springs in the semi-arid southern Kenya Rift Valley. Today this harsh lacustrine environment excludes most organisms except microbial extremophiles, a few invertebrates (mostly insects), highly adapted fish (Alcolapia sp.), and birds including flamingos. Burrows discovered in outcrops of the High Magadi Beds (~25–9 ka) that predate the modern saline (trona) pan show that beetles and other invertebrates inhabit this extreme environment when conditions become more favourable. Burrows (cm-scale) preserved in magadiite in the High Magadi Beds are filled with mud, silt and sand from overlying sediments. Their stratigraphic context reveals upward-shallowing cycles from mud to interlaminated mud-magadiite to magadiite in dm-scale units. The burrows were formed when the lake floor became fresher and oxygenated, after a period when magadiite precipitated in shallow saline waters. The burrows, probably produced by beetles, show that trace fossils can provide evidence for short-term (possibly years to decades) changes in the contemporary environment that might not otherwise be recognised or preserved physically or chemically in the sediment record. © 2020, The Author(s).
