Did anoxia terminate Ediacaran benthic communities? Evidence from early diagenesis

The cements likely record a general shallow to deeper water transect, from oxic shallow waters to low oxygen manganous waters, then to oxic, shallow burial conditions. We hypothesize that Cloudina reef communities were terminated by episodic sediment incursions during short-term, transgressive cycles, possibly accompanied by upwelled, anoxic, ferruginous and dolomitising waters, although the timing for this is poorly constrained. More generally, such incursions may have terminated Ediacaran benthic communities that grew close to the chemocline.