Decimetre-scale multicellular eukaryotes from the 1.56-billion-year-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation in North China.
Decimetre-scale multicellular eukaryotes from the 1.56-billion-year-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation in North China.
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华北15.6亿年前高峪庄组分米级多细胞真核生物
DOI：
10.1038/ncomms11500
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发表时间：
2016-05-17
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Liu H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhu S;Zhu M;Knoll AH;Yin Z;Zhao F;Sun S;Qu Y;Shi M;Liu H
宏观真核生物化石很少比埃迪卡拉纪（635-5.41 亿年（Myr））更古老，并且它们的解释仍然存在争议。在此，我们报道了在华北燕山地区距今1560米尔高峪庄组中发现的宏观化石，这些化石尺寸较大，形态规则。高峪庄化石保存为碳质压缩物，具有统计上规则的线性至披针形形状，长可达30厘米，宽近8厘米，表明高峪庄化石记录了尺寸空前巨大的底栖多细胞真核生物。同基因片段显示紧密排列的约 10μm 细胞排列在厚片中，进一步强化了这一解释。与活的叶体生物体的比较表明，这些生物体是进行光合作用的，尽管它们在真核生物中的系统发育位置仍不确定。这些新化石提供了迄今为止最有力的证据，表明在寒武纪大爆发之前至少十亿年前，海洋生物圈中就存在着具有十分之一尺寸和有规律的发育程序的多细胞真核生物。 在 6.35 亿年前的埃迪卡拉纪之前，宏观生物在化石记录中很少见。在这里，朱等人。报告发现了 15.6 亿年前的碳质压缩化石，为埃迪卡拉纪之前很久的宏观多细胞真核生物的进化提供了证据。
Fossils of macroscopic eukaryotes are rarely older than the Ediacaran Period (635–541 million years (Myr)), and their interpretation remains controversial. Here, we report the discovery of macroscopic fossils from the 1,560-Myr-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation, Yanshan area, North China, that exhibit both large size and regular morphology. Preserved as carbonaceous compressions, the Gaoyuzhuang fossils have statistically regular linear to lanceolate shapes up to 30 cm long and nearly 8 cm wide, suggesting that the Gaoyuzhuang fossils record benthic multicellular eukaryotes of unprecedentedly large size. Syngenetic fragments showing closely packed ∼10 μm cells arranged in a thick sheet further reinforce the interpretation. Comparisons with living thalloid organisms suggest that these organisms were photosynthetic, although their phylogenetic placement within the Eukarya remains uncertain. The new fossils provide the strongest evidence yet that multicellular eukaryotes with decimetric dimensions and a regular developmental program populated the marine biosphere at least a billion years before the Cambrian Explosion. Macroscopic organisms are rare in the fossil record until the Ediacaran Period, beginning 635 million years ago. Here, Zhu et al. report the discovery of 1.56-billion-year-old carbonaceous compression fossils that provide evidence of the evolution of macroscopic, multicellular eukaryotes long before the Ediacaran Period.