• Ediacaran developmental biology

    From erik simpson@21:1/5 to erik simpson on Thu Sep 16 17:00:41 2021
    On Thursday, September 16, 2021 at 4:56:19 PM UTC-7, erik simpson wrote:
    With time on my hands waiting for repair guy, some googling turned this excellent review of the still-mysterious relationships among Ediacaran organisms and the possible relationships with crown (or at least later) taxa.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5947158/

    "Rocks of the Ediacaran System (635–541 Ma) preserve fossil evidence of some of the earliest complex macroscopic organisms, many of which have been interpreted as animals. However, the unusual morphologies of some of these organisms have made it
    difficult to resolve their biological relationships to modern metazoan groups. Alternative competing phylogenetic interpretations have been proposed for Ediacaran taxa, including algae, fungi, lichens, rhizoid protists, and even an extinct higher‐order
    group (Vendobionta). If a metazoan affinity can be demonstrated for these organisms, as advocated by many researchers, they could prove informative in debates concerning the evolution of the metazoan body axis, the making and breaking of axial symmetries,
    and the appearance of a metameric body plan. Attempts to decipher members of the enigmatic Ediacaran macrobiota have largely involved study of morphology: comparative analysis of their developmental phases has received little attention. Here we present
    what is known of ontogeny across the three iconic Ediacaran taxa Charnia masoni, Dickinsonia costata and Pteridinium simplex, together with new ontogenetic data and insights. We use these data and interpretations to re‐evaluate the phylogenetic
    position of the broader Ediacaran morphogroups to which these taxa are considered to belong (rangeomorphs, dickinsoniomorphs and erniettomorphs). We conclude, based on the available evidence, that the affinities of the rangeomorphs and the
    dickinsoniomorphs lie within Metazoa."

    A downloadable source for the above :

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/brv.12379

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  • From erik simpson@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 16 16:56:18 2021
    With time on my hands waiting for repair guy, some googling turned this excellent review of the still-mysterious relationships among Ediacaran organisms and the possible relationships with crown (or at least later) taxa.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5947158/

    "Rocks of the Ediacaran System (635–541 Ma) preserve fossil evidence of some of the earliest complex macroscopic organisms, many of which have been interpreted as animals. However, the unusual morphologies of some of these organisms have made it
    difficult to resolve their biological relationships to modern metazoan groups. Alternative competing phylogenetic interpretations have been proposed for Ediacaran taxa, including algae, fungi, lichens, rhizoid protists, and even an extinct higher‐order
    group (Vendobionta). If a metazoan affinity can be demonstrated for these organisms, as advocated by many researchers, they could prove informative in debates concerning the evolution of the metazoan body axis, the making and breaking of axial symmetries,
    and the appearance of a metameric body plan. Attempts to decipher members of the enigmatic Ediacaran macrobiota have largely involved study of morphology: comparative analysis of their developmental phases has received little attention. Here we present
    what is known of ontogeny across the three iconic Ediacaran taxa Charnia masoni, Dickinsonia costata and Pteridinium simplex, together with new ontogenetic data and insights. We use these data and interpretations to re‐evaluate the phylogenetic
    position of the broader Ediacaran morphogroups to which these taxa are considered to belong (rangeomorphs, dickinsoniomorphs and erniettomorphs). We conclude, based on the available evidence, that the affinities of the rangeomorphs and the
    dickinsoniomorphs lie within Metazoa."

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