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Underneath the Pantanal Wetland: A Deep-Time History of Gondwana Assembly, Climate Change, and the Dawn of Metazoan Life

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Dynamics of the Pantanal Wetland in South America

Part of the book series: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry ((HEC,volume 37))

Abstract

Underneath the wetlands of the Brazilian Pantanal are hidden key ecological and geological events of the history of our planet. In this chapter we show that Precambrian rocks forming the hills and mountains surrounding the Pantanal floodplains record (a) the cyclic process of supercontinents assembling, (b) the origin of complex life forms on Earth, and (c) the past global climate changes. It further unveiled the most recent geochronological data and paleontological and tectonic discoveries for modeling the evolution of the Pantanal basement rocks. Various questions are also addressed, including the formation time of the Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinents, the triggering factor leading to animal skeleton biomineralization, and the “Snowball Earth Hypothesis.”

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the CNPq (project 444070/2014-1) and PROPE/UNESP for the financial support and Dr. Michael M. McGlue (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky) for revising the manuscript. This work has the institutional support of the São Paulo State University (UNESP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Geology Department, Geosciences and Exact Sciences Institute, São Paulo State University, Av. 24A, 1515, Rio Claro, 13506-900, Brazil

    Lucas V. Warren, Fernanda Quaglio & Mario L. Assine

  2. Zoology Department, Bioscences Institute, São Paulo State University, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, Botucatu, 18618-000, Brazil

    Marcello G. Simões

  3. Geosciences Institute, University of São Paulo (USP), Rua do Lago, 562, São Paulo, 05508-080, Brazil

    Bernardo T. Freitas & Claudio Riccomini

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  1. Lucas V. Warren
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  2. Fernanda Quaglio
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  3. Marcello G. Simões
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  4. Bernardo T. Freitas
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Correspondence to Lucas V. Warren .

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  1. Laboratório de Conversão de Biomassa, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), Corumbá, Brazil

    Ivan Bergier

  2. IGCE - Departamento de Geologia Aplicada, UNESP- Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mario Luis Assine

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Warren, L.V., Quaglio, F., Simões, M.G., Freitas, B.T., Assine, M.L., Riccomini, C. (2014). Underneath the Pantanal Wetland: A Deep-Time History of Gondwana Assembly, Climate Change, and the Dawn of Metazoan Life. In: Bergier, I., Assine, M. (eds) Dynamics of the Pantanal Wetland in South America. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2014_326

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