Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2003 Feb;43(1):127-36. doi: 10.1093/icb/43.1.127.
We propose that some of the more conspicuous Ediacaran fossils from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, including Aspidella, Charnia, and Charniodiscus, were biologically similar to members of the Kingdom Fungi. These organisms were multicellular or multinuclear, lived below the photic zone, could not move or defoul themselves, did not exhibit taphonomic shrinkage, and were not transported or moved. Aspidella, in particular, appears to exhibit indeterminate growth without a maximum size constraint, and appears to show growth zonations similar to modern mycelia. Other fossils from this deposit exhibit a fractal-like growth pattern. Together, these features falsify algal, lichen, and metazoan interpretations of these fossils, yet reflect characteristics of modern fungal mycelia. We emphasize that although no Mistaken Point fossil appears to be a metazoan, not all of the Mistaken Point taxa, and not all of the Ediacaran organisms in general, can reasonably be interpreted using a fungal analogy. Furthermore, the hypothesis that these fossils were functionally fungus-like need not imply that the organisms were members of the crown-group Fungi. We propose further tests for evaluating both this functional hypothesis and the phylogenetic hypothesis that these organisms were members of the total-group Fungi.
我们提出，新foundland 亚伯拉罕半岛上一些更为显著的埃迪卡拉纪化石，包括 Aspidella、Charnia 和 Charniodiscus，在生物学上与真菌界的成员相似。这些生物是多细胞或多核的，生活在光带以下，不能移动或弄脏自己，没有表现出死后缩小的迹象，也不会被搬运或移动。尤其是 Aspidella，似乎表现出没有最大尺寸限制的不定型生长，并且似乎显示出类似于现代菌丝体的生长带。该矿床的其他化石表现出分形样的生长模式。这些特征共同否定了这些化石被藻类、地衣和后生动物解释的说法，但反映了现代真菌菌丝体的特征。我们强调，尽管 Mistaken Point 的化石似乎没有一个是后生动物，但并非所有 Mistaken Point 的分类群，也不是所有埃迪卡拉纪生物，都可以合理地用真菌类比来解释。此外，这些化石在功能上类似于真菌的假设并不一定意味着这些生物是真菌冠群的成员。我们进一步提出了测试这一功能假设以及这些生物是真菌总群成员的系统发育假设的方法。
