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.

Originally published in Science Express on 15 July 2004
Science 20 August 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5687, pp. 1141 - 1144
DOI: 10.1126/science.1099727
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Modular Construction of Early Ediacaran Complex Life Forms

Guy M. Narbonne

Newly discovered, exceptionally preserved, soft-bodied fossils near Spaniard's Bay in eastern Newfoundland exhibit features not previously described from Ediacaran (terminal Neoproterozoic) fossils. All of the Spaniard's Bay taxa were composed of similar architectural elements—centimeter-scale frondlets exhibiting three orders of fracticality in branching. Frondlets were combined as modules atop semi-rigid organic skeletons to form a wide array of larger constructions, including frondose and plumose structures. This architecture and construction define the "rangeomorphs," a biological clade that dominated the Mistaken Point assemblage (575 to 560 million years ago) but does not appear to be ancestral to any Phanerozoic or modern organisms.

Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. E-mail: narbonne{at}geol.queensu.ca

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
From the Cover: Osmotrophy in modular Ediacara organisms.
M. Laflamme, S. Xiao, and M. Kowalewski (2009)
PNAS 106, 14438-14443
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
RECONSTRUCTING A LOST WORLD: EDIACARAN RANGEOMORPHS FROM SPANIARD'S BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND.
G. M. NARBONNE, M. LAFLAMME, C. GREENTREE, and P. TRUSLER (2009)
Journal of Paleontology 83, 503-523
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
YANGTZIRAMULUS ZHANGI NEW GENUS AND SPECIES, A CARBONATE-HOSTED MACROFOSSIL FROM THE EDIACARAN DENGYING FORMATION IN THE YANGTZE GORGES AREA, SOUTH CHINA.
B. SHEN, S. XIAO, C. ZHOU, and X. YUAN (2009)
Journal of Paleontology 83, 575-587
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota: new insights from laser analysis.
M. D. Brasier and J. B. Antcliffe (2009)
Journal of the Geological Society 166, 363-384
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Carbonate-hosted Avalon-type fossils in arctic Siberia.
D. V. Grazhdankin, U. Balthasar, K. E. Nagovitsin, and B. B. Kochnev (2008)
Geology 36, 803-806
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Growth and Ecology of a Multi-branched Ediacaran Rangeomorph from the Mistaken Point Assemblage, Newfoundland.
E. L. Bamforth, G. M. Narbonne, and M. M. Anderson (2008)
Journal of Paleontology 82, 763-777
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The earliest fossil record of the animals and its significance.
G. E Budd (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc B 363, 1425-1434
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
EDIACARAN BIOTA ON BONAVISTA PENINSULA, NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA.
H. J. HOFMANN, S. J. O'BRIEN, and A. F. KING (2008)
Journal of Paleontology 82, 1-36
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Charnia and sea pens are poles apart.
J. B. Antcliffe and M. D. Brasier (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 49-51
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The provenance and palaeobiology of a new multi-vaned, chambered frondose organism from the Ediacaran (later Neoproterozoic) of South Australia.
R. J. F. Jenkins and C. Nedin (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 195-222
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Discoidal fossils of the Ediacaran biota: a review of current understanding.
B. A. MacGabhann (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 297-313
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Poriferan paraphyly and its implications for Precambrian palaeobiology.
E. A. Sperling, D. Pisani, and K. J. Peterson (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 355-368
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The nature of vendobionts.
A. Seilacher (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 387-397
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Darwin's dilemma: the realities of the Cambrian 'explosion'.
S. Conway Morris (2006)
Phil Trans R Soc B 361, 1069-1083
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Lower Cambrian vendobionts from china and early diploblast evolution..
D.-G. Shu, S. C. Morris, J. Han, Y. Li, X.-L. Zhang, H. Hua, Z.-F. Zhang, J.-N. Liu, J.-F. Guo, Y. Yao, et al. (2006)
Science 312, 731-734
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Historical contingency and the purported uniqueness of evolutionary innovations.
G. J. Vermeij (2006)
PNAS 103, 1804-1809
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A re-examination of the Nama-type Vendian organism Rangea schneiderhoehni.
D. GRAZHDANKIN and A. SEILACHER (2005)
Geological Magazine 142, 571-582
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A uniquely preserved Ediacaran fossil with direct evidence for a quilted bodyplan.
S. Xiao, B. Shen, C. Zhou, G. Xie, and X. Yuan (2005)
PNAS 102, 10227-10232
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe ages from the Doushantuo Formation in south China: Constraints on late Neoproterozoic glaciations.
S. Zhang, G. Jiang, J. Zhang, B. Song, M. J. Kennedy, and N. Christie-Blick (2005)
Geology 33, 473-476
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Tempo and mode of early animal evolution: inferences from rocks, Hox, and molecular clocks.
K. J. Peterson, M. A. McPeek, and D. A. D. Evans (2005)
Paleobiology 31, 36-55
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)