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Lower Triassic limestones contain giant ooids (>2 mm) along with other precipitated carbonate textures more typical of Precambrian strata. These features appear to have resulted from changes in seawater chemistry associated with the end-Permian mass extinction, but quantifying the carbonate chemistry of Early Triassic seawater has remained challenging. To constrain seawater carbonate saturation state, dissolved inorganic carbon, alkalinity, and pH, we applied a physicochemical model of ooid formation constrained by new size data on Lower Triassic ooids from south China, finding that the Triassic giant ooids require a higher carbonate saturation state than typifies modern sites of ooid formation. Model calculations indicate that Early Triassic oceans were at least seven times supersaturated with respect to aragonite and calcite. When combined with independent constraints on atmospheric pCO2 and oceanic [Ca2+], these findings require that Early Triassic oceans had more than twice the modern levels of dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity and a pH near 7.6. Such conditions may have played a role in inhibiting the recovery of skeletal animals and algae during Early Triassic time.

We appreciate Kershaw et al.'s comment and continued interest in our Permian–Triassic research in the Nanpanjiang Basin. Kershaw et al. comment on aspects of our recent study that contradict results from the study of Collin et al. (2009). Specifically their comments center around two questions: (1) whether the truncation surface at the base of the Permian–Triassic microbialite shows evidence for subaerial exposure, and (2) whether data support the model of genesis of the microbialites by upwelling of anoxic, alkaline waters with elevated carbonate saturation from bacterial sulfate reduction (Kershaw et al. 1999, 2007, 2012). We note that our recent study is much broader in scope than the issues addressed in this comment and reply. Our study presented extensive stratigraphic, geochemical, biostratigraphic and petrographic analyses from multiple sections, introduced new sections that have not been presented in the literature, and evaluated multiple models for the genesis of the microbialite and underlying truncation surface. We welcome this opportunity to respond to Kershaw et al.'s comment and to further illuminate studies of the Permian–Triassic boundary in the Nanpanjiang Basin. ### Two Generations of Fibrous Cement Fringe? Maybe, But There is Still no Evidence for Pendant Geometry Kershaw et al. comment that there are two generations of bladed fringing cement adhered to grains and that only the second generation has a pendant geometry. Collin et al. (2009) made the same interpretation. From the photographs in Collin et al. (2009, fig. 5Aa–5Ab) and from our thin section observations, we interpreted this to be a single generation of fibrous cement fringe adhered to grains, with a faint zonation of clear-cloudy-clear alternation within the fringe, in which the cloudy zone contained a greater concentration of fluid inclusions (fig. 1A, 1B). Note that the photos presented in the comment by Kershaw et al. (figs. 3, 4) are also consistent with this interpretation. The entire bladed cement fringe was used …

The small size of Early Triassic marine organisms has important implications for the ecological and environmental pressures operating during and after the end-Permian mass extinction. However, this “Lilliput Effect” has only been documented quantitatively in a few invertebrate clades. Moreover, the discovery of Early Triassic gastropod specimens larger than any previously known has called the extent and duration of the Early Triassic size reduction into question. Here, we document and compare Permian-Triassic body size trends globally in eight marine clades (gastropods, bivalves, calcitic and phosphatic brachiopods, ammonoids, ostracods, conodonts, and foraminiferans). Our database contains maximum size measurements for 11,224 specimens and 2,743 species spanning the Late Permian through the Middle to Late Triassic. The Permian/Triassic boundary (PTB) shows more size reduction among species than any other interval. For most higher taxa, maximum and median size among species decreased dramatically from the latest Permian (Changhsingian) to the earliest Triassic (Induan), and then increased during Olenekian (late Early Triassic) and Anisian (early Middle Triassic) time. During the Induan, the only higher taxon much larger than its long-term mean size was the ammonoids; they increased significantly in median size across the PTB, a response perhaps related to their comparatively rapid diversity recovery after the end-Permian extinction. The loss of large species in multiple clades across the PTB resulted from both selective extinction of larger species and evolution of surviving lineages toward smaller sizes. The within-lineage component of size decrease suggests that only part of the size decrease can be related to the end-Permian kill mechanism; in addition, Early Triassic environmental conditions or ecological pressures must have continued to favor small body size as well. After the end-Permian extinction, size decrease occurred across ecologically and physiologically disparate clades, but this size reduction was limited to the first part of the Early Triassic (Induan). Nektonic habitat or physiological buffering capacity may explain the contrast of Early Triassic size increase and diversification in ammonoids versus size reduction and slow recovery in benthic clades.

The chronostratigraphy of Guandao section has served as the foundation for numerous studies of the end-Permian extinction and biotic recovery in south China. Guandao section is continuous from the Permian–Triassic boundary to the Upper Triassic. Conodonts enable broad delineation of stage and substage boundaries and calibration of foraminifer biostratigraphy as follows. Changhsingian–Griesbachian: first Hindeodus parvus, and first appearance of foraminifers Postcladella kalhori and Earlandia sp. Griesbachian–Dienerian: first Neospathodus dieneri, and last appearance of foraminifer P. grandis. Dienerian–Smithian: first Novispathodus waageni and late Dienerian first appearance of foraminifer Hoyenella ex gr. sinensis. Smithian–Spathian: first Nv? crassatus and last appearance of foraminifers Arenovidalina n. sp. and Glomospirella cf. vulgaris. Spathian–Aegean: first Chiosella timorensis and first appearance of foraminifer Meandrospira dinarica. Aegean–Bithynian: first Nicoraella germanica and first appearance of foraminifer Pilammina densa. Bithynian–Pelsonian: after last Neogondolella regalis, prior to first Paragondolella bulgarica and first appearance of foraminifer Aulotortus eotriasicus. Pelsonian–Illyrian: first Pg. excelsa and last appearance of foraminifers Meandrospira? deformata and Pilamminella grandis. Illyrian–Fassanian: first Budurovignathus truempyi, and first appearance of foraminifers Abriolina mediterranea and Paleolituonella meridionalis. Fassanian–Longobardian: first Bv. mungoensis and last appearance of foraminifer A. mediterranea. Longobardian–Cordevolian: first Quadralella polygnathiformis and last appearance of foraminifers Turriglomina mesotriasica and Endotriadella wirzi. The section contains primary magnetic signature with frequent reversals occurring around the Permian–Triassic, Olenekian–Anisian, and Anisian–Ladinian boundaries. Predominantly normal polarity occurs in the lower Smithian, Bithynian, and Longobardian–Cordevolian. Predominantly reversed polarity occurs in the upper Griesbachian, Induan–Olenekian, Pelsonian and lower Illyrian. Reversals match well with the GPTS. Large amplitude carbon isotope excursions, attaining values as low as −2.9‰ δ13C and high as +5.7‰ δ13C, characterize the Lower Triassic and basal Anisian. Values stabilize around +2‰ δ13C through the Anisian to Carnian. Similar signatures have been reported globally. Magnetic susceptibility and synthetic gamma ray logs show large fluctuations in the Lower Triassic and an overall decline in magnitude of fluctuation through the Middle and Upper Triassic. The largest spikes in magnetic susceptibility and gamma ray, indicating greater terrestrial lithogenic flux, correspond to positive δ13C excursions. High precision U–Pb analysis of zircons from volcanic ash beds provide a robust age of 247.28 ± 0.12 Ma for the Olenekian–Anisian boundary at Guandao and an age of 251.985 ± 0.097 Ma for the Permian–Triassic boundary at Taiping. Together, the new U–Pb geochronology from the Guandao and Taiping sections suggest an estimated duration of 4.71 ± 0.15 Ma for the Early Triassic Epoch.

A widespread marine microbialite and underlying truncation surface occur in Permian–Triassic sections of South China. We interpret the microbialite to have formed as a shallow, open-marine benthic framework stimulated by high seawater CaCO3 saturation. The widespread distribution across platform interiors and lack of asymmetry or thickening toward platform margins is incompatible with an alternative hypothesis, that microbialite deposition was stimulated by upwelling anoxic, alkaline waters. The truncation surface beneath the microbialite is irregular with overhangs and small caverns extending up to 30 cm beneath the surface indicating a dissolutional origin. Petrographic observations refute the interpretation that strata immediately beneath the surface contain pendant cements, meniscus cements, and vadose silt. Measurements of the anisopachous fibrous cements show that thickened areas have random, not downward orientations. Pores retain the pointed geometry consistent with isopachous cement. Car...

Lower Triassic platforms in the Nanpanjiang Basin contain extensive oolites. Interior oolites are stacked in meter-scale cycles arranged into larger coarsening-upward sequences. Oolites thicken toward margins to include grainstones up to 50 m (164 ft) thick and contain giant ooids (up to 1 cm [0.4 in.]) and composite coated grains. Cross-bedding, ripples, and abraded ooids indicate deposition in high-energy shoals. Apparent layer-cake correlation across interiors indicates amalgamation of shoals. Thinner interior lenses represent spillover lobes. Ooids are interpreted to have originally been bimineralic with cortices of radial or micritic fabrics (high-magnesium calcite), alternating with coarse pseudospar or brickwork (originally aragonite). Distorted ooids formed by brittle compaction of micritic cortices around voids are interpreted to have been dissolved aragonite. Abundant potential nuclei indicate that limited supply was not a factor contributing to the large ooid size. High-energy and abnormally high–seawater CaCO3 saturation are interpreted to be causes of the giant ooids. Most previous reports of giant ooids come from the Neoproterozoic, a period of increasing surface-water oxygenation and high CaCO3 saturation caused by a minimal skeletal carbonate precipitation. We interpret similar seawater chemistry in the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction to explain the genesis of the giant ooids in the Early Triassic. The genesis of bimineralic ooids during an Early Triassic period of rapidly increasing pCO2 and low indicates that an increasing Ca/Mg ratio was the primary mechanism driving the change from aragonite to calcite seas. The architecture, textures, and diagenesis of the Lower Triassic oolites of the Nanpanjiang Basin provide useful analogs for coeval reservoirs in Sichuan and the Middle East.

Cope's rule proposes that animal lineages evolve toward larger body size over time. To test this hypothesis across all marine animals, we compiled a data set of body sizes for 17,208 genera of marine animals spanning the past 542 million years. Mean biovolume across genera has increased by a factor of 150 since the Cambrian, whereas minimum biovolume has decreased by less than a factor of 10, and maximum biovolume has increased by more than a factor of 100,000. Neutral drift from a small initial value cannot explain this pattern. Instead, most of the size increase reflects differential diversification across classes, indicating that the pattern does not reflect a simple scaling-up of widespread and persistent selection for larger size within populations.