Multiphase calcification associated with the atmophytic cyanobacterium Scytonema julianum

Scytonema julianum, which is an atmophytic cyanobacterium that lives in small clusters in shaded vadose settings throughout the world, is prone to rapid calcification. Specimens found on cavity walls in an inactive spring tower located in Shiqiang (Stone Wall) in China and cavity walls in a breccia that fills sinkholes in dolostones of the Cayman Formation (Miocene) on Grand Cayman are morphologically identical. The microbes (4–11 μm diameter) are encased with thick, well-developed calcified sheaths with external diameters of 11 to 25 μm, which developed through the sequential precipitation of amorphous CaCO3 (ACC), acicular calcite crystals, triradiate calcite crystals, and dendrite calcite crystals. The paragenetic relationship of these precipitates to the skeletal rhombic crystals that cover some specimens is unknown. Precipitation probably took place in the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that covered the microbes when they were alive. Critically, the type of crystal evident on the surface of the sheath depends on the thickness of the calcified sheath, which is in accord with the sequential development of the different crystal forms. Available evidence indicates that precipitation was largely “microbially influenced” rather than “environment influenced” and also demonstrates that crystals commonly morphed from one crystal form into another as precipitation progressed. There is, for example, clear evidence that the dendrite crystals developed from the triradiate crystals. S. julianum can play a significant role in the development of microbialites in vadose settings by acting as nuclei for CaCO3 precipitation.