Scratch Traces of Large Ediacara Bilaterian Animals

2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Gehling ◽  
Bruce N. Runnegar ◽  
Mary L. Droser
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Microbial Mats ◽  
White Sea ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Cambrian Explosion ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Feeding Patterns ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Ediacara Biota

Ediacara fan-shaped sets of paired scratchesKimberichnus teruzziifrom the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia, and the White Sea region of Russia, represent the earliest known evidence in the fossil record of feeding traces associated with the responsible bilaterian organism. These feeding patterns exclude arthropod makers and point to the systematic feeding excavation of seafloor microbial mats by large bilaterians of molluscan grade. Since the scratch traces were made into microbial mats, animals could crawl over previous traces without disturbing them. The trace maker is identified asKimberella quadrata, whose death masks co-occur with the mat excavation traces in both Russia and South Australia. The co-occurrence of animals and their systematic feeding traces in the record of the Ediacara biota supports previous trace fossil evidence that bilaterians existed globally before the Cambrian explosion of life in the ocean.

Ediacaran scavenging as a prelude to predation

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Gehling ◽  
Mary L. Droser
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Mats ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Localized Source ◽  
Oxygen Levels ◽  
Stem Group ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
Ecological Innovation ◽  
Large Predators ◽  
Ancient Ecosystems

Predation is one of the most fundamental ecological and evolutionary drivers in modern and ancient ecosystems. Here, we report the discovery of evidence of the oldest scavenging of shallowly buried bodies of iconic soft-bodied members of the Ediacara Biota by cryptic seafloor mat-burrowing animals that produced the furrow and levee trace fossil, Helminthoidichnites isp. These mat-burrowers were probably omnivorous, stem-group bilaterians that largely grazed on microbial mats but when following mats under thin sands, they actively scavenged buried Dickinsonia, Aspidella, Funisia and other elements of the Ediacara Biota. These traces of opportunistic scavengers of dead animals from the Ediacaran of South Australia represent a fundamental ecological innovation and a possible pathway to the evolution of macrophagous predation in the Cambrian. While the Ediacaran oceans may have had oxygen levels too low to support typical large predators, the Helminthoidichnites maker lived in and grazed on microbial mats, which may have provided a localized source of oxygen.

Bacterial Communities of Microbial Mats of the White Sea Supralittoral and of the Littoral of the Lakes Separated from the Sea

Microbiology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 600-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. I. Burganskaya ◽  
D. S. Grouzdev ◽  
M. S. Krutkina ◽  
V. M. Gorlenko
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Microbial Mats ◽  
White Sea ◽  
The White Sea

scholarly journals Constructional and functional anatomy of Ediacaran rangeomorphs

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Gas Exchange ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
White Sea ◽  
Functional Anatomy ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Total Group ◽  
Taphonomic Analysis

Abstract Ediacaran rangeomorphs were the first substantially macroscopic organisms to appear in the fossil record, but their underlying biology remains problematic. Although demonstrably heterotrophic, their current interpretation as osmotrophic consumers of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is incompatible with the inertial (high Re) and advective (high Pe) fluid dynamics accompanying macroscopic length scales. The key to resolving rangeomorph feeding and physiology lies in their underlying construction. Taphonomic analysis of three-dimensionally preserved Charnia from the White Sea identifies the presence of large, originally water-filled compartments that served both as a hydrostatic exoskeleton and semi-isolated digestion chambers capable of processing recalcitrant substrates, most likely in conjunction with a resident microbiome. At the same time, the hydrodynamically exposed outer surface of macroscopic rangeomorphs would have dramatically enhanced both gas exchange and food delivery. A bag-like epithelium filled with transiently circulated seawater offers an exceptionally efficient means of constructing a simple, DOC-consuming, multicellular heterotroph. Such a body plan is broadly comparable to that of anthozoan cnidarians, minus such derived features as muscle, tentacles and a centralized mouth. Along with other early bag-like fossils, rangeomorphs can be reliably identified as total-group eumetazoans, potentially colonial stem-group cnidarians.

scholarly journals New biocenosis model of Vendian (Ediacaran) sedimentation basin of Podilia (Ukraine)

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. A. Nesterovsky ◽  
A. I. Martyshyn ◽  
A. M. Chupryna
Keyword(s):  
White Sea ◽  
Hydroelectric Station ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Cambrian Explosion ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Continuous Section ◽  
Geological Museum ◽  
Unique Material ◽  
National University ◽  
Carbonate Formations

The aim of this study is to fully research all aspects of the distribution, development, conditions of burial and preservation of the Ediacaran biocomplex. Thiswork summarizes and extends all data on the unique Vendian invertebrates that are distributed in the natural and artificial outcrops of the Dniester River Basin within Podilia (Ukraine). One of the basic locations of the annual observation was a quarry of rubble stone production near the Dniester hydroelectric station-1, Novodnistrovsk city, which exposes a continuous section of the deposits of the Lomoziv, Yampil, Lyadova and Bernashivka Beds lying on a crystalline basement. This paper shows the outcomes of long-term fieldwork of the Upper Ediacaran which include deposits of the Mogyliv-Podilsky and Kanylivka Group. The researched section is characterized by its clastic composition and the absence of carbonate formations. The basic paleontological collection has more than two thousand specimens, for instance, the imprints of molluscous fauna, traces of their live activity, the remains of flora and fossils of a problematic nature. The most numerous and informative collection of these fossils is located in the stock of the Geological Museum of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The collection contains unique material, including a number of Ediacaran fossils described for the first time. On the whole within Podilia region, more than 100 species have been described in detail. The main areas of biota accumulation in the outcrops are associated with argillites, argillite-siltstones and their contact with sandstones. The best preservation of the imprints is detected in the boundary of facial transitions. Research has revealed that there is a decrease in the numerical and species composition of the molluscous biota, and the dynamic increase in evolution of burrowing organisms and plants within the Podilia Basin during the late Vendian. Such a phenomenon led to an environmental change, increase in oxygen and appearance of new groups of organisms that were subsequently displaced invertebrates. This occurred at the Precambrian/Cambrian transition, and in the geological literature is described as the «Cambrian explosion». Studies have found that the total number of taxonomic composition of the Eidacaran in Podilia is similar to the orictocoenosis of Southern Australia and the White Sea. Nevertheless, the Podilia biocomplex is more ancient than the Southern Australian and the White Sea, it is much younger than the Avallonian.

scholarly journals BIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FROM THE PRESERVATIONAL VARIABILITY OF FUNISIA DOROTHEA, EDIACARA MEMBER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Palaios ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 359-376
Author(s):  
RACHEL L. SURPRENANT ◽  
JAMES G. GEHLING ◽  
MARY L. DROSER
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Cambrian Explosion ◽  
Ediacara Biota ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
Fossil Site ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Body Fossil

ABSTRACT The Ediacara Biota represents a turning point in the evolution of life on Earth, signifying the transition from single celled organisms to complex, community-forming macrobiota. The exceptional fossil record of the soft-bodied Ediacara Biota provides critical insight into the nature of this transition and into ecosystem dynamics leading up to the so-called “Cambrian Explosion”. However, the preservation of non-biomineralizing organisms in a diversity of lithologies goes hand-in-hand with considerable taphonomic complexity that often shrouds true paleoecological and paleobiological signatures. We address the nature of this taphonomic complexity within the fossiliferous sandstones of the Ediacara Member in South Australia. Utilizing the most fossiliferous outcropping of the Ediacara Member, located at the Nilpena Station National Heritage Ediacara Fossil Site, we conduct a focused, taxon-level biostratinomic characterization of the tubular organism Funisia dorothea. Funisia is the most abundant body fossil in the Ediacara Member, making the characterization of its preservational variability essential to the accurate interpretation of regional paleobiology and paleoecology. We describe remarkable biostratinomic complexity in all Funisia populations at Nilpena, identifying four distinct preservational variants of internal and external molds and four additional successive biostratinomic grades corresponding to loss of external characters. Synthesis of these observations identify the most robust preservational forms of Funisia for use in paleobiological interpretation and highlight the important impact that Funisia's high abundance had on regional paleoecology and on population-scale preservation in the Ediacara Member.

scholarly journals The trace fossil record of the Nama Group, Namibia: Exploring the terminal Ediacaran roots of the Cambrian explosion

2021 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 103435
Author(s):  
Simon A.F. Darroch ◽  
Alison T. Cribb ◽  
Luis A. Buatois ◽  
Gerard J.B. Germs ◽  
Charlotte G. Kenchington ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Cambrian Explosion

scholarly journals Seasonal abundance and feeding patterns of copepods Temora longicornis, Centropages hamatus and Acartia spp. in the White Sea (66°N)

Polar Biology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1175-1195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria M. Martynova ◽  
Natalia A. Kazus ◽  
Ulrich V. Bathmann ◽  
Martin Graeve ◽  
Alexey A. Sukhotin
Keyword(s):  
White Sea ◽  
Seasonal Abundance ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Feeding Patterns ◽  
Temora Longicornis ◽  
Centropages Hamatus

Ediacaran fossils from the Innerelv Member (late Proterozoic) of the Tanafjorden area, northeastern Finnmark

1992 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Farmer ◽  
G. Vidal ◽  
M. Moczydłowska ◽  
H. Strauss ◽  
P. Ahlberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Sea ◽  
Trace Fossil ◽  
Early Cambrian ◽  
The White Sea ◽  
Northern Norway ◽  
Unidentified Species ◽  
The Common ◽  
First Time ◽  
Avalon Peninsula ◽  
Concentric Organization

AbstractAn Ediacaran assemblage dominated by an unidentified species ofCyclomedusaSprigg 1947, along with species ofEdiacaria?Sprigg 1947,BeltanellaSprigg 1947,HiemaloraFedonkin 1982, andNimbia?Fedonkin 1980, is described for the first time from the Innerelv Member of the Stappogiedde Formation exposed in coastal outcrops west of Tanafjorden on Digermul Peninsula, in northeastern Finnmark, northern Norway. The fossil assemblage is dominated by discoidal forms which share certain affinities with the cosmopolitan genera.CyclomedusaandEdiacaria. However, our specimens differ from these and other discoidal Ediacaran fossils in the absence of radial sculpture. This, along with a basically concentric organization, are characteristics shared withKullingiafrom the Dividal Group of northern Scandinavia, the White Sea, Podolia, and northwestern Canada, along with undescribed discoidal remains from the Charnian Supergroup, Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, England, and the Conception Group, Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland.Our discovery of an Ediacaran-type assemblage within the Middle Innerelv Member provides support for previous suggestions of a late Vendian age for this sequence. This general conclusion is consistent with the occurrence of early Cambrian taxa, including the trace fossilPhycodes, and the problematical formsVendotaeniaandSabellidites,in basal portions of the Lower Breivik Formation, within the same stratigraphie section. The lowest formally-proposed faunal zone in northern Scandinavia is theKullingiaZone, based on the occurrence of the fossil medusoidKullingia concentricain Member III (Middle Sandstone C) of the Dividal Group, northern Scandinavia.Kullingiais a distinctly chambered form that was probably pelagic. In contrast,Cyclomedusa,and related genera of the so-calledCyclomedusaplexus, comprise an informal grouping of intergrading, probably benthic, taxa that possess radial and/or concentric organization. In light of the intergradational nature of taxa, present difficulties in taxonomic interpretation and correlation, and the abundance of cyclomedusoids in many Ediacaran assemblages, we suggest that the concept of theKullingiaZone, as originally defined for northern Scandanavia, be broadened to include the common form genera of theCyclomedusaplexus, inclusive of the occurrences in the Innerelv Member described herein. It is our hope that additional fieldwork will provide a basis for more refined taxonomic evaluations and biozonation.

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