Reading the Siberian record: Unravelling biological and environmental dynamics in the Ediacaran Khatyspyt Lagerstätte

埃迪卡拉纪（635-541 Ma）记录了在著名的后生动物“寒武纪大爆发”之前，全球出现了宏观复杂生物（埃迪卡拉型化石、碳质压缩化石）。然而，人们对这些生物赖以生存的生态系统知之甚少。分子化石可以提供生物群落和环境条件的信息，但由于火山碎屑和硅碎屑的岩性，分子化石通常不能保存在寄主岩石中。Khatyspyt组（俄罗斯西伯利亚北部）是现存仅有的两个具有埃迪卡拉型化石的碳酸盐岩地层之一。含丰富的碳质压缩化石、多种微量化石和保存异常完好的分子化石。因此，Khatyspyt组被认为是化石lagerstätte，它为研究埃迪卡拉纪宏观复杂生物的生态系统提供了一个独特的窗口。在这个项目中，我将对各种不同的Khatyspyt相进行详细的分子化石（脂质生物标志物）分析。通过将生物标志物数据与沉积学和古生物学证据联系起来，我将重建生物群落、环境条件以及生态系统在时间和空间上的变化。这将为埃迪卡拉纪环境中宏观复杂生物的发生模式提供重要的生态学和地学约束。

The Ediacaran (635-541 Ma) records the global occurrence of macroscopic complex organisms (Ediacara-type fossils, carbonaceous compression fossils) prior to the celebrated "Cambrian Explosion" of metazoan life. However, still little is known about the ecosystems in which these organisms thrived. Molecular fossils could provide insight into biological communities and environmental conditions, but are commonly not preserved in the host rocks due to volcaniclastic and siliciclastic lithologies. The Khatyspyt Formation (Arctic Siberia, Russia) is one of the only two existing carbonate settings with Ediacara-type fossils. It contains abundant carbonaceous compression fossils, a variety of trace fossils, and exceptionally well preserved molecular fossils. The Khatyspyt Formation has therefore been considered a fossil lagerstätte that provides a unique window into ecosystems with Ediacaran macroscopic complex organisms. In this project I will conduct detailed molecular fossil (lipid biomarker) analyses on a variety of different Khatyspyt facies. By linking the biomarker data with sedimentological and paleontological evidence I will reconstruct biological communities, environmental conditions and thus, ecosystem variability in time and space. This will provide important ecological and taphonomic constraints on the occurrence patterns of macroscopic complex organisms in Ediacaran environments.