Decimetre-scale multicellular eukaryotes from the 1.56-billion-year-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation in North China

Shixing Zhu, Maoyan Zhu (), Andrew H. Knoll, Zongjun Yin, Fangchen Zhao, Shufen Sun, Yuangao Qu, Min Shi and Huan Liu
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Shixing Zhu: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey
Maoyan Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Andrew H. Knoll: Harvard University
Zongjun Yin: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fangchen Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shufen Sun: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey
Yuangao Qu: Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen
Min Shi: State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences
Huan Liu: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Fossils of macroscopic eukaryotes are rarely older than the Ediacaran Period (635–541 million years (Myr)), and their interpretation remains controversial. Here, we report the discovery of macroscopic fossils from the 1,560-Myr-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation, Yanshan area, North China, that exhibit both large size and regular morphology. Preserved as carbonaceous compressions, the Gaoyuzhuang fossils have statistically regular linear to lanceolate shapes up to 30 cm long and nearly 8 cm wide, suggesting that the Gaoyuzhuang fossils record benthic multicellular eukaryotes of unprecedentedly large size. Syngenetic fragments showing closely packed ∼10 μm cells arranged in a thick sheet further reinforce the interpretation. Comparisons with living thalloid organisms suggest that these organisms were photosynthetic, although their phylogenetic placement within the Eukarya remains uncertain. The new fossils provide the strongest evidence yet that multicellular eukaryotes with decimetric dimensions and a regular developmental program populated the marine biosphere at least a billion years before the Cambrian Explosion.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11500

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