School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 18;11(1):4121. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-83452-1.
Suspension feeding is a key ecological strategy in modern oceans that provides a link between pelagic and benthic systems. Establishing when suspension feeding first became widespread is thus a crucial research area in ecology and evolution, with implications for understanding the origins of the modern marine biosphere. Here, we use three-dimensional modelling and computational fluid dynamics to establish the feeding mode of the enigmatic Ediacaran pentaradial eukaryote Arkarua. Through comparisons with two Cambrian echinoderms, Cambraster and Stromatocystites, we show that flow patterns around Arkarua strongly support its interpretation as a passive suspension feeder. Arkarua is added to the growing number of Ediacaran benthic suspension feeders, suggesting that the energy link between pelagic and benthic ecosystems was likely expanding in the White Sea assemblage (~ 558-550 Ma). The advent of widespread suspension feeding could therefore have played an important role in the subsequent waves of ecological innovation and escalation that culminated with the Cambrian explosion.
悬浮摄食是现代海洋中的一种关键生态策略，它在浮游和底栖系统之间建立了联系。因此，确定悬浮摄食何时首次广泛存在是生态学和进化领域的一个关键研究领域，这对于理解现代海洋生物圈的起源具有重要意义。在这里，我们使用三维建模和计算流体动力学来确定神秘的埃迪卡拉纪五辐射真核生物 Arkarua 的摄食方式。通过与两个寒武纪棘皮动物 Cambraster 和 Stromatocystites 的比较，我们表明，Arkarua 周围的流动模式强烈支持其作为被动悬浮食者的解释。Arkarua 被添加到越来越多的埃迪卡拉纪底栖悬浮食者中，这表明在白海组合体中（约 558-550 Ma），浮游和底栖生态系统之间的能量联系可能在扩大。因此，广泛的悬浮摄食的出现可能在随后的生态创新和生态级联中发挥了重要作用，最终导致了寒武纪大爆发。
