Large spinose microfossils in Ediacaran rocks as resting stages of early animals

Large spinose microfossils in Ediacaran rocks as resting stages of early animals.

Large (>100 microm), profusely ornamented microfossils comprise a distinctive paleontological component of sedimentary rocks deposited during the Ediacaran Period (635-542 million years ago). Smaller spinose fossils in Paleozoic rocks have commonly been interpreted as algal cysts or phycomata, but the Ediacaran populations differ from modern algal analogs in size, shape, ultrastructure, and int...

Microfossils Preserved in Highly Metamorphosed Rocks: a New Window into the Early Biosphere

Circular graphite discs, among abundant irregular graphite particles, have been extracted from ArcheanPaleoproterozoic amphibolite grade metamorphic rocks in the Wutaishan area of North China. Raman spectroscopic analysis indicates that these graphite discs experienced maximum metamorphic temperature of 513 ± 50 °C. The discs bear morphological features related to metamorphism, but they are als...

Neoproterozoic Microfossils from the Margin of the East European Platform and the Search for a Biostratigraphic Model of Lower Ediacaran Rocks

A ca. 600 m thick siliciclastic succession in northern Russia contains abundant and diverse microfossils that document early to middle Ediacaran deposition along the northeastern margin of the East European Platform. The Vychegda Formation is poorly exposed but is well documented by a core drilled in the Timan trough region (Kel’tminskaya-1 borehole). Vychegda siliciclastics lie unconformably a...

Paleomagnetism of the Precambrian Eastern Sayan rocks: Implications for the Ediacaran–Early Cambrian paleogeography of the Tuva-Mongolian composite terrane

The advent of animals: The view from the Ediacaran.

Patterns of origination and evolution of early complex life on this planet are largely interpreted from the fossils of the Precambrian soft-bodied Ediacara Biota. These fossils occur globally and represent a diverse suite of organisms living in marine environments. Although these exceptionally preserved fossil assemblages are typically difficult to reconcile with modern phyla, examination of th...