Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation
The soft-bodied Ediacara biota (571–541 million years ago) represents the oldest complex large organisms in the fossil record, providing a bridge between largely microbial ecosystems of the Precambrian and the animal-dominated world of the Phanerozoic, potentially holding clues about the early evolu...
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ftanucanberra:oai:openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au:1885/237364 2024-01-14T10:11:19+01:00 Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation Bobrovskiy, Ilya Krasnova, Anna Ivantsov, Andrey Luzhnaya, Ekaterina Brocks, Jochen http://hdl.handle.net/1885/237364 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/237364/3/s41559-019-0820-7.pdf.jpg unknown Nature Publishing Group http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170100556 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160100607 Bobrovskiy, I., Krasnova, A., Ivantsov, A. et al. Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 582–589 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 2397-334X http://hdl.handle.net/1885/237364 doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/237364/3/s41559-019-0820-7.pdf.jpg © 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited Nature Ecology & Evolution Journal article ftanucanberra https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 2023-12-15T09:36:20Z The soft-bodied Ediacara biota (571–541 million years ago) represents the oldest complex large organisms in the fossil record, providing a bridge between largely microbial ecosystems of the Precambrian and the animal-dominated world of the Phanerozoic, potentially holding clues about the early evolution of Metazoa. However, the nature of most Ediacaran organisms remains unresolved, partly due to their enigmatic non-actualistic preservation. Here, we show that Flinders-style fossilization of Ediacaran organisms was promoted by unusually prolonged conservation of organic matter, coupled with differences in rheological behaviour of the over- and underlying sediments. In contrast with accepted models, cementation of overlying sand was not critical for fossil preservation, which is supported by the absence of cement in unweathered White Sea specimens and observations of soft sediment deformation in South Australian specimens. The rheological model, confirmed by laboratory simulations, implies that Ediacaran fossils do not necessarily reflect the external shape of the organism, but rather the morphology of a soft external or internal organic 'skeleton'. The rheological mechanism provides new constraints on biological interpretations of the Ediacara biota. The study was funded by Australian Research Council grants DP160100607 and DP170100556 (to J.J.B.) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research project number 17-05-02212A (to I.B., A.K. and A.I). I.B. acknowledges an Australian Government Research Training Program stipend scholarship. Article in Journal/Newspaper White Sea Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections White Sea Flinders ENVELOPE(-66.667,-66.667,-69.267,-69.267) Nature Ecology & Evolution 3 4 582 589 |
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Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections |
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The soft-bodied Ediacara biota (571–541 million years ago) represents the oldest complex large organisms in the fossil record, providing a bridge between largely microbial ecosystems of the Precambrian and the animal-dominated world of the Phanerozoic, potentially holding clues about the early evolution of Metazoa. However, the nature of most Ediacaran organisms remains unresolved, partly due to their enigmatic non-actualistic preservation. Here, we show that Flinders-style fossilization of Ediacaran organisms was promoted by unusually prolonged conservation of organic matter, coupled with differences in rheological behaviour of the over- and underlying sediments. In contrast with accepted models, cementation of overlying sand was not critical for fossil preservation, which is supported by the absence of cement in unweathered White Sea specimens and observations of soft sediment deformation in South Australian specimens. The rheological model, confirmed by laboratory simulations, implies that Ediacaran fossils do not necessarily reflect the external shape of the organism, but rather the morphology of a soft external or internal organic 'skeleton'. The rheological mechanism provides new constraints on biological interpretations of the Ediacara biota. The study was funded by Australian Research Council grants DP160100607 and DP170100556 (to J.J.B.) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research project number 17-05-02212A (to I.B., A.K. and A.I). I.B. acknowledges an Australian Government Research Training Program stipend scholarship. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bobrovskiy, Ilya Krasnova, Anna Ivantsov, Andrey Luzhnaya, Ekaterina Brocks, Jochen |
spellingShingle |
Bobrovskiy, Ilya Krasnova, Anna Ivantsov, Andrey Luzhnaya, Ekaterina Brocks, Jochen Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
author_facet |
Bobrovskiy, Ilya Krasnova, Anna Ivantsov, Andrey Luzhnaya, Ekaterina Brocks, Jochen |
author_sort |
Bobrovskiy, Ilya |
title |
Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
title_short |
Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
title_full |
Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
title_fullStr |
Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation |
title_sort |
simple sediment rheology explains the ediacara biota preservation |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1885/237364 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/237364/3/s41559-019-0820-7.pdf.jpg |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-66.667,-66.667,-69.267,-69.267) |
geographic |
White Sea Flinders |
geographic_facet |
White Sea Flinders |
genre |
White Sea |
genre_facet |
White Sea |
op_source |
Nature Ecology & Evolution |
op_relation |
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP170100556 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160100607 Bobrovskiy, I., Krasnova, A., Ivantsov, A. et al. Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 582–589 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 2397-334X http://hdl.handle.net/1885/237364 doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/237364/3/s41559-019-0820-7.pdf.jpg |
op_rights |
© 2019 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0820-7 |
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Nature Ecology & Evolution |
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3 |
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4 |
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589 |
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