On the origin of metazoan reefs

Presented here is a dataset of all occurrences of palaeoecology (carbonate
platform setting, hydrodynamic energy, substrate preferences, reef
setting, and ecological growth position) or earliest reef-associated
metazoans from the Ediacaran (550-538 million years ago, Ma), and the
earliest Cambrian of the Siberian Platform (527-521.5 Ma). To quantify the
range of ecological settings occupied by early skeletal metazoans, whether
ecological setting was conserved in any given species, and the
distribution of substrate preferences, we collated data from all known
global in situ (= in life, growth position) occurrences of the terminal
Ediacaran (ca. 550-533 Ma) metazoan Cloudina spp. (16 occurrences), and
from mainly in situ occurrences of archaeocyath sponge species (n=43
species) and some additional sessile reef-associated groups (coralomorphs,
radiocyaths) from the earliest Cambrian (pre-Tommotian and Tommotian, late
Fortunian – Cambrian Stage 2, 527-521 Ma), from the Lena-Aldan area on the
Siberia Platform (261 occurrences). We define an occurrence as the
presence of an in situ assemblage of species in a stratum
occupying a limited stratigraphic interval at any given locality
(Zhuravlev et al., 2015).  Each such occurrence was studied to
identify species, sedimentary facies and their ecological, spatial
relationships. Lower Cambrian data were subdivided into five time
intervals. These data can be potentially be re-purposed for other
analyses. There are no legal or ethical considerations.