Early marine seafloor lithification of carbonate sediments leads to the formation of
hardgrounds and is known from rocks as old as the Proterozoic. Hardground surfaces …

Octocorallia (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria) is a group of calcifying corals displaying a
wide diversity of mineral skeletons. This includes skeletal structures composed of different …

Oscillations between the dominance of aragonite and calcite in abiotic marine CaCO 3
precipitates throughout Earth history are closely coupled with the evolution of Earth's …

The biogenic carbonate hard parts of fossil bivalves, cephalopods and brachiopods are
among the most widely exploited marine archives of Phanerozoic environmental and climate …

Despite many major advances in recent years, three key challenges remain in bringing
clarity to the early history of the phylum:(1) identifying the origin, morphology and life modes …

Many animal phyla have the physiological ability to produce biomineralized skeletons with
functional roles that have been shaped by natural selection for more than 500 million years …

Biomineralization–the formation of minerals by organisms–is a key aspect in the
understanding of the fossil record. Knowing how biominerals form and their properties is …

Over 95% of all metazoan (animal) species comprise the “invertebrates,” but very few
genomes from these organisms have been sequenced. We have, therefore, formed a …

Environmental change and biotic interactions both govern the evolution of the biosphere, but
the relative importance of these drivers over geological time remains largely unknown …

Aragonite (along with calcite) is one of the most common polymorphs of the crystalline
calcium carbonate that forms the skeletal structures of organisms, but it has relatively low …