Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
NanoString Technologies

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 3 June 2004
Science 9 July 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5681, pp. 218 - 222
DOI: 10.1126/science.1099213
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research Articles

Small Bilaterian Fossils from 40 to 55 Million Years Before the Cambrian

Jun-Yuan Chen,1,2* David J. Bottjer,3* Paola Oliveri,4 Stephen Q. Dornbos,3 Feng Gao,4 Seth Ruffins,4 Huimei Chi,5 Chia-Wei Li,6 Eric H. Davidson4

Ten phosphatized specimens of a small (<180 micrometers) animal displaying clear bilaterian features have been recovered from the Doushantuo Formation, China, dating from 40 to 55 million years before the Cambrian. Seen in sections, this animal (Vernanimalcula guizhouena gen. et sp. nov.) had paired coeloms extending the length of the gut; paired external pits that could be sense organs; bilateral, anterior-posterior organization; a ventrally directed anterior mouth with thick walled pharynx; and a triploblastic structure. The structural complexity is that of an adult rather than a larval form. These fossils provide the first evidence confirming the phylogenetic inference that Bilateria arose well before the Cambrian.

1 Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Nanjing 210008, China.
2 Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
3 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
4 Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
5 Department of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
6 Department of Life Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, China.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chenjunyuan{at}163.net (J.-Y.C.); dbottjer{at}usc.edu (D.J.B.)

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A composite stratigraphy for the Neoproterozoic Huqf Supergroup of Oman: integrating new litho-, chemo- and chronostratigraphic data of the Mirbat area, southern Oman.
R. RIEU, P. A. ALLEN, A. COZZI, J. KOSLER, and F. BUSSY (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 997-1009
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ciliated protozoans from the Precambrian Doushantuo Formation, Wengan, South China.
C.-W. Li, J.-Y. Chen, J. H. Lipps, F. Gao, H.-M. Chi, and H.-J. Wu (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 151-156
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paleontological Evidence to Date the Tree of Life.
M. J. Benton and P. C. J. Donoghue (2007)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 24, 26-53
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Production of hydrogen peroxide in the atmosphere of a Snowball Earth and the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis.
M.-C. Liang, H. Hartman, R. E. Kopp, J. L. Kirschvink, and Y. L. Yung (2006)
PNAS 103, 18896-18899
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Specification of the C. elegans MS blastomere by the T-box factor TBX-35.
G. Broitman-Maduro, K. T.-H. Lin, W. W. K. Hung, and M. F. Maduro (2006)
Development 133, 3097-3106
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Phosphatized polar lobe-forming embryos from the precambrian of southwest china..
J.-Y. Chen, D. J. Bottjer, E. H. Davidson, S. Q. Dornbos, X. Gao, Y.-H. Yang, C.-W. Li, G. Li, X.-Q. Wang, D.-C. Xian, et al. (2006)
Science 312, 1644-1646
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Environmental Controls on the Taphonomy of Phosphatized Animals and Animal Embryos from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation, Southwest China.
S. Q. DORNBOS, D. J. BOTTJER, J.-Y. CHEN, F. GAO, P. OLIVERI, and C.-W. LI (2006)
Palaios 21, 3-14
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Decay and Mineralization of Invertebrate Eggs.
D. MARTIN, D. E.G. BRIGGS, and R. J. PARKES (2005)
Palaios 20, 562-572
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Molecular Phylogeny and Divergence Times of Deuterostome Animals.
J. E. Blair and S. B. Hedges (2005)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 22, 2275-2284
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
U-Pb Ages from the Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Formation, China.
D. Condon, M. Zhu, S. Bowring, W. Wang, A. Yang, and Y. Jin (2005)
Science 308, 95-98
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comment on "Small Bilaterian Fossils from 40 to 55 Million Years Before the Cambrian".
S. Bengtson and G. Budd (2004)
Science 306, 1291a
   Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comment on "Small Bilaterian Fossils from 40 to 55 Million Years Before the Cambrian".
J.-Y. Chen, P. Oliveri, E. Davidson, and D. J. Bottjer (2004)
Science 306, 1291b
   Full Text »    PDF »
The timing of eukaryotic evolution: Does a relaxed molecular clock reconcile proteins and fossils?.
E. J. P. Douzery, E. A. Snell, E. Bapteste, F. Delsuc, and H. Philippe (2004)
PNAS 101, 15386-15391
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolutionary Change and The American Journal of Pathology.
J. M. McDonald, G. P. Siegal, and M. G. Eisemann (2004)
Am. J. Pathol. 165, 1055-1056
   Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products