Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Fossilized nuclei and germination structures identify Ediacaran ‘animal embryos’ as encysting protists.
ETH Zürich. (Swiss Light Source)
Show others and affiliations
2011 (English)In: Science, ISSN 0036-8075, Vol. 334, no 6063, p. 1696-1699Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Globular fossils showing palintomic cell cleavage in the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation, China, are widely regarded as embryos of early metazoans, although metazoan synapomorphies, tissue differentiation, and associated juveniles or adults are lacking. We demonstrate using synchrotron-based x-ray tomographic microscopy that the fossils have features incompatible with multicellular metazoan embryos. The developmental pattern is comparable with nonmetazoan holozoans, including germination stages that preclude postcleavage embryology characteristic of metazoans. We conclude that these fossils are neither animals nor embryos. They belong outside crown-group Metazoa, within total-group Holozoa (the sister clade to Fungi that includes Metazoa, Choanoflagellata, and Mesomycetozoea) or perhaps on even more distant branches in the eukaryote tree. They represent an evolutionary grade in which palintomic cleavage served the function of producing propagules for dispersion.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2011. Vol. 334, no 6063, p. 1696-1699
Keywords [en]
Ediacaran, Development, Protist, Metazoa
National Category
Developmental Biology Geology
Research subject
Ecosystems and species history
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-609DOI: 10.1126/science.1209537OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-609DiVA, id: diva2:742065
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2005-4437, 2007-4484Available from: 2014-08-29 Created: 2014-08-29 Last updated: 2014-09-01Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Bengtson, Stefan
By organisation
Department of Paleobiology
Developmental BiologyGeology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 166 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf