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Science 5 May 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5774, pp. 731 - 734
DOI: 10.1126/science.1124565
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Reports

Lower Cambrian Vendobionts from China and Early Diploblast Evolution

D.-G. Shu,1,2* S. Conway Morris,3* J. Han,1 Y. Li,4 X.-L. Zhang,1 H. Hua,1 Z.-F. Zhang,1 J.-N. Liu,1 J.-F. Guo,1 Y. Yao,1 K. Yasui5

Ediacaran assemblages immediately predate the Cambrian explosion of metazoans and should have played a crucial role in this radiation. Their wider relationships, however, have remained refractory and difficult to integrate with early metazoan phylogeny. Here, we describe a frondlike fossil, Stromatoveris (S. psygmoglena sp. nov.), from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Yunnan, China) that is strikingly similar to Ediacaran vendobionts. The exquisite preservation reveals closely spaced branches, probably ciliated, that appear to represent precursors of the diagnostic comb rows of ctenophores. Therefore, this finding has important implications for the early evolution of this phylum and related diploblasts, some of which independently evolved a frondose habit.

1 Early Life Institute and Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
2 School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China.
3 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
4 College of Earth Science and Land Resources, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, China.
5 Marine Biological Laboratory, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, 2445 Mukaishima-cho, Onomichi, Hiroshima 722-0073, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: elidgshu{at}nwu.edu.cn (D.-G.S.); sc113{at}esc.cam.ac.uk (S.C.M.)

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