Chen Zhe, Zhou Chuanming, Xiao Shuhai, Wang Wei, Guan Chengguo, Hua Hong, Yuan Xunlai
LPS and LESP, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
Sci Rep. 2014 Feb 25;4:4180. doi: 10.1038/srep04180.
Ediacara fossils are central to our understanding of animal evolution on the eve of the Cambrian explosion, because some of them likely represent stem-group marine animals. However, some of the iconic Ediacara fossils have also been interpreted as terrestrial lichens or microbial colonies. Our ability to test these hypotheses is limited by a taphonomic bias that most Ediacara fossils are preserved in sandstones and siltstones. Here we report several iconic Ediacara fossils and an annulated tubular fossil (reconstructed as an erect epibenthic organism with uniserial arranged modular units), from marine limestone of the 551-541 Ma Dengying Formation in South China. These fossils significantly expand the ecological ranges of several key Ediacara taxa and support that they are marine organisms rather than terrestrial lichens or microbial colonies. Their close association with abundant bilaterian burrows also indicates that they could tolerate and may have survived moderate levels of bioturbation.
埃迪卡拉生物群化石对于我们理解寒武纪大爆发前夕的动物进化至关重要，因为其中一些化石可能代表干群海洋动物。然而，一些标志性的埃迪卡拉生物群化石也被解释为陆生地衣或微生物菌落。我们检验这些假说的能力受到一种埋藏学偏差的限制，即大多数埃迪卡拉生物群化石保存在砂岩和粉砂岩中。在此，我们报道了来自中国南方5.51 - 5.41亿年前灯影组海相石灰岩中的几种标志性埃迪卡拉生物群化石以及一种具环管状化石（重建为一种具有单列排列模块化单元的直立底栖生物）。这些化石显著扩展了几个关键埃迪卡拉生物分类单元的生态范围，并支持它们是海洋生物而非陆生地衣或微生物菌落。它们与丰富的两侧对称动物洞穴的紧密关联也表明它们能够耐受并可能在中等程度的生物扰动中存活下来。
