Li CW, Chen JY, Hua TE
C.-W. Li and T.-E. Hua, Department of Life Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, China. J.-Y. Chen, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Academia Sinica, Nanjing, China.
Science. 1998 Feb 6;279(5352):879-82. doi: 10.1126/science.279.5352.879.
Sponge remains have been identified in the Early Vendian Doushantuo phosphate deposit in central Guizhou (South China), which has an age of approximately 580 million years ago. Their skeletons consist of siliceous, monaxonal spicules. All are referred to as the Porifera, class Demospongiae. Preserved soft tissues include the epidermis, porocytes, amoebocytes, sclerocytes, and spongocoel. Among thousands of metazoan embryos is a parenchymella-type of sponge larvae having a shoe-shaped morphology and dense peripheral flagella. The presence of possible amphiblastula larva suggests that the calcareous sponges may have an extended history in the Late Precambrian. The fauna indicates that animals lived 40 to 50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion.
在贵州中部（中国南方）约5.8亿年前的早震旦世陡山沱磷矿层中发现了海绵遗骸。它们的骨骼由硅质单轴骨针组成。所有这些都被归类为多孔动物门寻常海绵纲。保存下来的软组织包括表皮、孔细胞、变形细胞、造骨细胞和中央腔。在数千个后生动物胚胎中，有一种实质胚型海绵幼虫，呈鞋形，周边有密集的鞭毛。可能存在的两囊幼虫表明，钙质海绵在晚前寒武纪可能有着更长的历史。这一动物群表明，动物在寒武纪大爆发之前4000万至5000万年就已存在。
