Journal Article10.1126/SCIENCE.1099727
Modular Construction of Early Ediacaran Complex Life Forms
TL;DR: Newly discovered, exceptionally preserved, soft-bodied fossils near Spaniard's Bay in eastern Newfoundland exhibit features not previously described from Ediacaran (terminal Neoproterozoic) fossils.
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Abstract: Newly discovered, exceptionally preserved, soft-bodied fossils near Spaniard9s Bay in eastern Newfoundland exhibit features not previously described from Ediacaran (terminal Neoproterozoic) fossils. All of the Spaniard9s Bay taxa were composed of similar architectural elements—centimeter-scale frondlets exhibiting three orders of fracticality in branching. Frondlets were combined as modules atop semi-rigid organic skeletons to form a wide array of larger constructions, including frondose and plumose structures. This architecture and construction define the “rangeomorphs,” a biological clade that dominated the Mistaken Point assemblage (575 to 560 million years ago) but does not appear to be ancestral to any Phanerozoic or modern organisms.
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Citations
Origin and early diversification of the phylum cnidaria verrill: major developments in the analysis of the taxon's proterozoic-cambrian history
Heyo Van Iten,Heyo Van Iten,Antonio C. Marques,Juliana de Moraes Leme,Mírian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco,Marcello Guimarães Simões +5 more
TL;DR: The oldest known fossil cnidarians occur in strata of Ediacaran age and consist of polypoid forms that were either nonbiomineralizing or weakly so as mentioned in this paper.
115
Reconstructing a Lost World: Ediacaran Rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland
TL;DR: The Spanishard's Bay rangeomorphs are characterized by self-similar branching over several fractal scales that were used as modules in construction of larger structures as discussed by the authors, and they were used to represent the early evolution of complex multicellular life.
113
Rangeomorphs, Thectardis (Porifera?) and dissolved organic carbon in the Ediacaran oceans
TL;DR: The recognition of sponges in the Mistaken Point biota provides some of the earliest body fossil evidence for this group, which must have ranged through the Ediacaran based on biomarkers, molecular clocks, and their position on the metazoan tree of life, in spite of their sparse macroscopic fossil record.
112
Effaced preservation in the Ediacara biota and its implications for the early macrofossil record
TL;DR: In this paper, it was suggested that Ivesheadia is likely to be a taphomorph resulting from extensive post-mortem decay of frondose organisms in Avalonian assemblages, and the term ivesheadiomorphs was proposed to incorporate all such effaced taphonomic expressions of Ediacaran macrofossil taxa.
108
New Finds of Skeletal Fossils in the Terminal Neoproterozoic of the Siberian Platform and Spain
Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev,Eladio Liñán,José Antonio Gámez Vintaned,Françoise Debrenne,Aleksandr B. Fedorov +4 more
TL;DR: The authors reported new assemblages of primarily calcareous shelly fossils from upper Ediacaran (553-542 Ma) carbonates of Spain and Russia (Siberian Platform).
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