The role of fungal biomineralization in the formation of Early Carboniferous soil fabrics

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Abstract
Paleosols in the Lower Carboniferous limestones of South Wales commonly contain needle‐fibre calcite which is an unusual form of calcite recently shown to form by the calcification of fungal hyphae in present day soils. The needle‐fibre calcite occurs in two associations in the paleosols: as coatings on sediment grains and as rhizocretions. The former can be compared with the microbial grain coatings of Quaternary calcretes. The latter represent the sites of fungal coats on roots and are interpreted as probable ectomycorrhizae, a symbiotic fungal sheath‐root association. These findings suggest that biomineralization was important in the formation of soil fabrics during the Carboniferous as it is in present day soils.

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