Three-dimensional preservation of algae and animal embryos in a Neoproterozoic phosphorite

Shuhai Xiao, Yun Zhang and Andrew H. Knoll
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Shuhai Xiao: Botanical Museum, Harvard University
Yun Zhang: College of Life Sciences, Beijing University
Andrew H. Knoll: Botanical Museum, Harvard University

Nature, 1998, vol. 391, issue 6667, 553-558

Abstract: Abstract Phosphorites of the late Neoproterozoic (570 ± 20 Myr BP) Doushantuo Formation, southern China, preserve an exceptional record of multicellular life from just before the Ediacaran radiation of macroscopic animals. Abundant thalli with cellular structures preserved in three-dimensional detail show that latest-Proterozoic algae already possessed many of the anatomical and reproductive features seen in the modern marine flora. Embryos preserved in early cleavage stages indicate that the divergence of lineages leading to bilaterians may have occurred well before their macroscopic traces or body fossils appear in the geological record. Discovery of these fossils shows that the early evolution of multicellular organisms is amenable to direct palaeontological inquiry.

Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1038/35318

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