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Rare fossilized embryos more than 500 million years old found
Rare
fossilized embryos more than 500 million years old found
Date:
April 10,
2014
Source:
University of Missouri-Columbia
Summary:
The Cambrian Period is a time when most phyla of
marine invertebrates first appeared. Also dubbed the 'Cambrian explosion,' fossilized
records from this time provide glimpses into evolutionary biology. Most fossils
show the organisms' skeletal structure, which may give researchers accurate
pictures of these prehistoric organisms. Now, researchers have found rare,
fossilized embryos they believe were undiscovered previously. Their methods of
study may help with future interpretation of evolutionary history.
.....................
The Cambrian
Period is a time when most phyla of marine invertebrates first appeared in the
fossil record. Also dubbed the "Cambrian explosion," fossilized
records from this time provide glimpses into evolutionary biology when the
world's ecosystems rapidly changed and diversified. Most fossils show the
organisms' skeletal structure, which may or may not give researchers accurate
pictures of these prehistoric organisms. Now, researchers at the University of
Missouri have found rare, fossilized embryos they believe were undiscovered
previously. Their methods of study may help with future interpretation of evolutionary
history.
"Before
the Ediacaran and Cambrian Periods, organisms were unicellular and
simple," said James Schiffbauer, assistant professor of geological
sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science. "The Cambrian Period,
which occurred between 540 million and 485 million years ago, ushered in the
advent of shells. Over time, shells and exoskeletons can be fossilized, giving
scientists clues into how organisms existed millions of years ago. This
adaptation provided protection and structural integrity for organisms. My work
focuses on those harder-to-find, soft-tissue organisms that weren't preserved
quite as easily and aren't quite as plentiful."
Schiffbauer
and his team, including Jesse Broce, a Huggins Scholar doctoral student in the
Department of Geological Sciences at MU, now are studying fossilized embryos in
rocks that provide rare opportunities to study the origins and developmental
biology of early animals during the Cambrian explosion.
Broce
collected fossils from the lower Cambrian Shuijingtuo Formation in the Hubei
Province of South China and analyzed samples to determine the chemical makeup
of the rocks. Soft tissue fossils have different chemical patterns than harder,
skeletal remains, helping researchers identify the processes that contributed
to their preservation. It is important to understand how the fossils were
preserved, because their chemical makeups can also offer clues about the nature
of the organisms' original tissues, Schiffbauer said.
"Something
obviously went wrong in these fossils," Schiffbauer said. "Our Earth
has a pretty good way of cleaning up after things die. Here, the cells'
self-destructive mechanisms didn't happen, and these soft tissues could be
preserved. While studying the fossils we collected, we found over 140
spherically shaped fossils, some of which include features that are reminiscent
of division stage embryos, essentially frozen in time."
The
fossilized embryos the researchers found were significantly smaller than other
fossil embryos from the same time period, suggesting they represent a yet
undescribed organism. Additional research will focus on identifying the parents
of these embryos, and their evolutionary position.
Schiffbauer
and his colleagues published this and related research in a volume of the Journal
of Paleontology which he co-edited.
The abstract
to this article can be found online at: http://www.psjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1666/13-062
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia. Note: Materials
may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Jesse Broce, James D. Schiffbauer, Kriti Sen Sharma, Ge Wang, and Shuhai Xiao. Possible Animal Embryos from the Lower Cambrian (Stage 3) Shuijingtuo Formation, Hubei Province, South China. Journal of Paleontology, April 2014
