500 Million Year Old Fossils Answer Evolution Question

advertisement

Definition

Soft Tissue Fossils

The hard parts of organisms, such as bones, shells, and teeth, have a better chance of becoming fossils than softer parts. Soft-tissue fossils are very rare because skin, eyes, guts, and brains are much more difficult to preserve than skeletons. The formation of a mineral concretion around a bone protects biomolecules inside it from hydrolysis by groundwater. Infusion and coating with iron and iron compounds at a critical point in the decay process protects cells within a bone from autolysis. Cross-linking and association with bone mineral surfaces provide added protection to a bone's collagen fibers. These protective factors can result in soft-tissue preservation that lasts millions of years. Soft tissue fossils are generally found in rocks rich in the mineral berthierine, one of the main clay minerals identified as toxic to decay bacteria. Although the soft-bodied organisms and the animals' soft tissues may be preserved through various early diagenetic processes, such as replication by clay minerals, calcification, or pyritization, the mineral most commonly preserving soft tissues is apatite.

Main Digest

An exceptionally well-preserved collection of fossils discovered in eastern Yunnan Province, China, has enabled scientists to solve a centuries-old riddle in the evolution of life on earth, revealing what the first animals to make skeletons looked like. The results have been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The first animals to build hard and robust skeletons appear suddenly in the fossil record in a geological blink of an eye around 550-520 million years ago during an event called the Cambrian Explosion. Many of these early fossils are simple hollow tubes ranging from a few millimeters to many centimeters in length. However, what sort of animals made these skeletons were almost completely unknown because they lacked preservation of the soft parts needed to identify them as belonging to major groups of animals that are still alive today.

The new collection of 514 million-year-old fossils includes four specimens of Gangtoucunia Aspera with soft tissues still intact, including the gut and mouthparts. These reveal that this species had a mouth fringed with a ring of smooth, unbranched tentacles about 5 mm long. These were likely used to sting and capture prey, such as small arthropods. The fossils also show that Gangtoucunia had a blind-ended gut (open only at one end), partitioned into internal cavities, that filled the length of the tube.

Article continues below image.

Continued...

These are features found today only in modern jellyfish, anemones, and their close relatives (known as cnidarians), organisms whose soft parts are extremely rare in the fossil record. The study shows that these simple animals were among the first to build the hard skeletons that make up much of the known fossil record.

According to the researchers, Gangtoucunia would have looked similar to modern scyphozoan jellyfish polyps, with a hard, tubular structure anchored to the underlying substrate. The tentacle mouth would have extended outside the tube but could have been retracted inside the tube to avoid predators. Unlike living jellyfish polyps, the tube of Gangtoucunia was made of calcium phosphate, a hard mineral that makes up our teeth and bones. Using this material to build skeletons has become rare among animals over time.

Article continues below image.

Continued...

Corresponding author Dr. Luke Parry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, said:

"This really is a one-in-million discovery. These mysterious tubes are often found in groups of hundreds of individuals, but until now, they have been regarded as 'problematic' fossils because we had no way of classifying them. Thanks to these extraordinary new specimens, a key piece of the evolutionary puzzle has been firmly established."

The new specimens demonstrate that Gangtoucunia was not related to annelid worms (earthworms, polychaetes, and their relatives) as had been previously suggested for similar fossils. It is clear that Gangtoucunia's body had a smooth exterior and a gut partitioned longitudinally, whereas annelids have segmented bodies with transverse body partitioning.

Article continues below image.

Continued...

The fossil was found at a site in the Gaoloufang section in Kunming, eastern Yunnan Province, China. Here, anaerobic (oxygen-poor) conditions limit the presence of bacteria that normally degrade soft tissues in fossils.

Ph.D. student Guangxu Zhang, who collected and discovered the specimens, said

"The first time I discovered the pink soft tissue on top of a Gangtoucunia tube, I was surprised and confused about what they were. In the following month, I found three more specimens with soft tissue preservation, which was very exciting and made me rethink the affinity of Gangtoucunia. The soft tissue of Gangtoucunia, particularly the tentacles, reveals that it is certainly not a priapulid-like worm as previous studies suggested, but more like a coral, and then I realized that it is a cnidarian."

Article continues below image.

Continued...

Although the fossil clearly shows that Gangtoucunia was a primitive jellyfish, this doesn't rule out the possibility that other early tube-fossil species looked very different. From Cambrian rocks in Yunnan province, the research team has previously found well-preserved tube fossils that could be identified as priapulids (marine worms), lobopodians (worms with paired legs, closely related to arthropods today), and annelids.

Co-corresponding author Xiaoya Ma (Yunnan University and University of Exeter) said:

"A tubicolous mode of life seems to have become increasingly common in the Cambrian, which might be an adaptive response to increasing predation pressure in the early Cambrian. This study demonstrates that exceptional soft-tissue preservation is crucial for understanding these ancient animals."

Attribution/Source(s):

This peer reviewed article relating to our Anthropology and Disability section was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World due to its likely interest to our disability community readers. Though the content may have been edited for style, clarity, or length, the article "500 Million Year Old Fossils Answer Evolution Question" was originally written by University of Oxford, and published by Disabled-World.com on 2022/11/02 (Updated: 2023/01/04). Should you require further information or clarification, University of Oxford can be contacted at ox.ac.uk. Disabled World makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith.

Share This Information To:
𝕏.com Facebook Reddit

advertisement