Large colonial organisms with coordinated growth in oxygenated environments 2.1 Gyr ago

Abderrazak El Albani (), Stefan Bengtson, Donald E. Canfield, Andrey Bekker, Roberto Macchiarelli, Arnaud Mazurier, Emma U. Hammarlund, Philippe Boulvais, Jean-Jacques Dupuy, Claude Fontaine, Franz T. Fürsich, François Gauthier-Lafaye, Philippe Janvier, Emmanuelle Javaux, Frantz Ossa Ossa, Anne-Catherine Pierson-Wickmann, Armelle Riboulleau, Paul Sardini, Daniel Vachard, Martin Whitehouse and Alain Meunier
Additional contact information
Abderrazak El Albani: Laboratoire HYDRASA, UMR 6269 CNRS-INSU, Université de Poitiers
Stefan Bengtson: Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Donald E. Canfield: Nordic Center for Earth Evolution
Andrey Bekker: University of Manitoba
Roberto Macchiarelli: Centre de Microtomographie, Université de Poitiers
Arnaud Mazurier: Société Etudes Recherches Matériaux, CRI Biopole, 86000 Poitiers, France
Emma U. Hammarlund: Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Philippe Boulvais: UMR 6118, Université de Rennes
Jean-Jacques Dupuy: Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières
Claude Fontaine: Laboratoire HYDRASA, UMR 6269 CNRS-INSU, Université de Poitiers
Franz T. Fürsich: GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Universität Erlangen, Fachgruppe Paläoumwelt, D 91054 Erlangen, Germany
François Gauthier-Lafaye: Laboratoire d'Hydrologie et de Géochimie de Strasbourg, UMR 7517 CNRS, 67084 Strasbourg, France
Philippe Janvier: UMR 7207 CNRS, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 75005, France
Emmanuelle Javaux: Unité de Recherche Paléobotanique-Paléopalynologie-Micropaléontologie, Université de Liège
Frantz Ossa Ossa: Laboratoire HYDRASA, UMR 6269 CNRS-INSU, Université de Poitiers
Anne-Catherine Pierson-Wickmann: UMR 6118, Université de Rennes
Armelle Riboulleau: Laboratoire Géosystèmes, FRE 3298 CNRS, Université Lille 1, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Paul Sardini: Laboratoire HYDRASA, UMR 6269 CNRS-INSU, Université de Poitiers
Daniel Vachard: Laboratoire Géosystèmes, FRE 3298 CNRS, Université Lille 1, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
Martin Whitehouse: Laboratory for Isotope Geology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
Alain Meunier: Laboratoire HYDRASA, UMR 6269 CNRS-INSU, Université de Poitiers

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7302, 100-104

Abstract: Early multicellular life A series of well preserved centimetre-scale fossils in an extended fossiliferous level within black shales near Franceville, in Gabon, West Africa, provides a glimpse of perhaps the earliest form of multicellular life so far discovered. Evidence for multicellular life before the Mesoproterozoic era (1.6–1.0 billion years ago) is scarce and controversial. These new finds are from sediments dated at 2.1 billion years old, not long after the rise in atmospheric oxygen concentration and about a billion and a half years before the rapid expansion in multicellular life forms known as the 'Cambrian explosion'. The fossils are variously sized and shaped remains of well-structured soft-bodied organisms, some exhibiting wrinkles suggestive of flexible sheet-like structures. Their shape and regular fabric indicate a multicellular degree of organization. These fossils may represent the earliest evidence so far reported for cell-to-cell signalling and coordinated growth behaviour on the scale of macroorganisms.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09166

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