An early Ediacaran assemblage of macroscopic and morphologically differentiated eukaryotes

Xunlai Yuan (), Zhe Chen, Shuhai Xiao (), Chuanming Zhou and Hong Hua
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Xunlai Yuan: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Zhe Chen: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Shuhai Xiao: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Chuanming Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Hong Hua: Northwest University

Nature, 2011, vol. 470, issue 7334, 390-393

Abstract: Rolling back the fossil record for complexity When did macroscopic, complex life forms first appear in the fossil record? Rather earlier than was thought, it seems. For several years the deep-water Avalon assemblage at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, has been widely recognized as the earliest known, at around 579 million to 565 million years old. But now a series of spectacular fossils of seaweed-like forms from the Lantian Formation in China has been dated to around 600 million years old. The taxonomic diversity and morphological complexity of the Lantian biota is comparable to that of the Avalon biota, suggesting that morphological diversification of macroscopic eukaryotes may have occurred earlier than previously thought.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09810

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