Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjq7

Description of the data and file structure

The dataset consists of supplementary text and references (ESM_Zhuravlev_and_Wood.docx) and an Excel data table (Table_S1_Zhuravlev_and_Wood.xlsx)

Summary: To quantify the range of ecological settings occupied by early skeletal metazoans, whether ecological setting was conserved in any given species, and the distribution of substrate preferences, we collated data from all known global in situ (= in life, growth position) occurrences of the terminal Ediacaran (ca. 550-533 Ma) metazoan Cloudina spp. (16 occurrences), and from mainly in situ occurrences of archaeocyath sponge species (n=43 species) and some additional sessile reef-associated groups (coralomorphs, radiocyaths) from the earliest Cambrian (pre-Tommotian and Tommotian, late Fortunian – Cambrian Stage 2, 527-521 Ma), from the Lena-Aldan area on the Siberia Platform (261 occurrences). We define an occurrence as the presence of an in situ assemblage of species in a stratum occupying a limited stratigraphic interval at any given locality (Zhuravlev et al., 2015). Each such occurrence was studied to identify species, sedimentary facies, and their ecological and spatial relationships.

     Lower Cambrian data were subdivided into five intervals following small shelly fossil and archaeocyath biostratigraphic zones, 527-524.5 Ma (pre-Tommotian (Fortunian) – Watsonella crosbyi – Aldanella attleborensis Zone), 524.5-523 Ma (Tommotian 1 (Stage 2) – Nochoroicyathus sunnaginicus Zone), 523-522.5 Ma (Tommotian 2 (Stage 2) – Dokidocyathus regularis Zone, lower subzone), 522.5-521.5 Ma (Tommotian 3 (Stage 2) – Dokidocyathus regularis Zone, upper subzone) and 521.5-521 Ma (Tommotian 4 (Stage 2) – Dokidocyathus lenaicus – Tumuliolynthus primigenius Zone) to create a high temporal resolution dataset (see Table S1; modified from Zhuravlev et al., 2015). This sample set covers all the different environments inhabited by archaeocyaths during each time interval.

All metazoans were assigned to:

1. Energetic setting: low-medium (defined by the co-occurrence of mudstones and/or wackestones), and/or medium to high (defined by the co-occurrence of grainstones and/or packstones),

2. Substrate of attachment: microbial mats (thin < 1 mm mats indicated by undulating layers following bedding plane surfaces, enriched in organic matterand lacking palaeorelief), and/or hard lithified (calcimicrobes (Renalcis), skeletal metazoans, and thrombolite (non-calcified cryptalgal buildups lacking lamination and characterized by a macroscopic clotted fabric (Aitken, 1967)), or soft (inferred loose unlithified mud/sediment);

3. Setting: reef, and/or inter-reefal (situated between reefs), or and/peri-reefal (situated surrounding the edges of reefs);

4. Growth position/habit: open (growing upwards and colonising open surfaces either within reefs or on soft substrates), and/or cryptic (growing downwards or sideways attached to a hard calcmicrobial or skeletal surface within a reef framework crypt), and/or aggregating (growing upwards on an open surface in a tight cluster of many individuals of the same species),

5. For the earliest Cambrian reefs, the principal facies type is following Dunham (1962) and Embry and Klovan (1971). These types are subdivided into the following categories representing different reef-building archaeocyath/calcimicrobial communities: archaeocyath boundstones (Cambrocyathellus/Archaeolynthus boundstone; Cambrocyathellus bafflestone; Cambrocyathellus cementstone (with >30% early marine cements); Okulitchicyathus bindstone; Spinosocyathus boundstone; Dictyocyathus bafflestone); Renalcis boundstone; reworked glauconitic sandstone; peri-reefal grainstone; Renalcis mud mound; calcareous-argillaceous mudstone. The sedimentology and detailed ecology of these assemblages have been summarised in part by Kruse et al. (1995), Riding & Zhuravlev (1995), and Zhuravlev et al. (2015), and are provided in the accompanying material for completeness.

The data present within each sheet of the submitted dataset (file: Table_S1_251025.xlsx) are occurrences of fossil taxa.

Sheet 1 = header - Cloudina. Ecological data from in-situ examples of the Ediacaran, reef-associated metazoan genus.

Sheet 2 = header - Archaeocyaths. Ecological data of species of the early Cambrian reef-associated archaeocyath sponges on the Siberian Platform.

Columns are as follows:

• A - Name of taxon (genus or species)
• B - Age interval in Millions of years
• C - Locality
• D/E - Depositional Setting - carbonate slope (D) and/or shallow (E)
• F/G - Hydrodynamic energetic regime of locality - high-medium energy (F) and/or medium to low energy (G)
• H-J - Ecology - reef (H),  and/or peri-reefal (I), and/or inter-reefal (J)
• K/L - Substrate of attachment - hard (K) and/or soft (L)
• M - Notes
• N-P - Reef ecology - open surface (N), and/or cryptic (O), and/or aggregating (P)
• Q - Reference for source data

Empty cells = value of 0 (zero)
? = possible occurrence, i.e., inconclusive data

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

• References as given

Data was derived from the following sources:

• References as given