Cunningham John A, Vargas Kelly, Marone Federica, Bengtson Stefan, Donoghue Philip C J
Department of Palaeobiology and Nordic Center for Earth Evolution, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 10405, Sweden.
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, England.
Evol Dev. 2016 Dec;18(5-6):308-316. doi: 10.1111/ede.12210.
Three-dimensional analyses of the early Ediacaran microfossils from the Weng'an biota (Doushantuo Formation) have focused predominantly on multicellular forms that have been interpreted as embryos, and yet they have defied phylogenetic interpretation principally because of absence of evidence from other stages in their life cycle. It is therefore unfortunate that the affinities of the various other Doushantuo microfossils have been neglected. A new conical fossil that is preserved at a cellular level is described here. The fossil contains distinct cell clusters that are characterized and analysed in three dimensions. These clusters are often exposed at the specimen surface, and the fossil preserves many hemispherical craters that are interpreted as positions where clusters have left the organism. The cell clusters may be either reproductive propagules or infesting organisms. Similar clusters are found in a variety of Doushantuo organisms including putative animal embryos and algae.
对瓮安生物群（陡山沱组）早期埃迪卡拉纪微化石的三维分析主要集中在被解释为胚胎的多细胞形态上，然而，它们一直无法进行系统发育解释，主要原因是缺乏其生命周期其他阶段的证据。因此，令人遗憾的是，其他各种陡山沱微化石的亲缘关系一直被忽视。本文描述了一种保存在细胞水平的新的锥形化石。该化石包含不同的细胞簇，并对其进行了三维特征描述和分析。这些细胞簇经常暴露在标本表面，化石保存了许多半球形凹坑，这些凹坑被解释为细胞簇离开生物体的位置。这些细胞簇可能是生殖繁殖体或寄生生物。在包括假定的动物胚胎和藻类在内的各种陡山沱生物中都发现了类似的细胞簇。
