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Science 12 September 1997:
Vol. 277. no. 5332, pp. 1645 - 1648
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5332.1645
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Reports

Fossilized Metazoan Embryos from the Earliest Cambrian

Stefan Bengtson, Yue Zhao

Small globular fossils known as Olivooides and Markuelia from basal Cambrian rocks in China and Siberia, respectively, contain directly developing embryos of metazoans. Fossilization is due to early diagenetic phosphatization. A nearly full developmental sequence of Olivooides can be observed, from late embryonic stages still within an egg membrane, to hatched specimens belonging to several ontogenetic stages. Earlier cleavage stages also occur, but cannot be identified to taxon. Olivooides shows similarities to coronate scyphozoans and to their probable Paleozoic representatives, the conulariids. Markuelia eggs contain looped embryos of a segmented worm with short, conical processes covering the body.

S. Bengtson, Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.
Yue Zhao, Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Baiwanzhuang Road, 100037 Beijing, People's Republic of China.

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