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Why do lower plants and animals biomineralize?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Martin Brasier
Martin Brasier*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, England
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Extract

Widespread concern about environmental pollution is putting a new question to the fossil record: How has the biosphere reacted to chemical changes in the past? Monera and Protoctista might be expected to provide valuable clues in this quest since their biomineral remains are generally formed in conditions closely related to the environment. But why do unicells biomineralize at all? It was with such questions in mind that an international symposium of the Systematics Association on “Biomineralization in Lower Plants and Animals” was held at Birmingham on April 15–19, 1985. Monerans, protoctistans, lichens, calcareous algae, and bryozoans were discussed in 36 papers, of which 23 are to be published in a volume by Oxford University Press. This volume, edited by Leadbeater and Riding (1986), will form a natural sequel to the papers in Miller et al. (1984) on mineral phases in biology and in Westbroek and de Jong (1983) on biomineralization and biological metal accumulation.

Type
Current Happenings
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , Summer 1986 , pp. 241 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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