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Oldest Known Macroscopic Skeletal Organism Was Masquerading as Fossilized Feces. Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era SmithsonianCom, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews-history-archaeology/oldest-known-macroscopic-skeletal-organism-was-masquerading-fossilized-feces-180970509/ Petrified Chains of 'Poop' Turn Out to Be One of Earth's Oldest Skeletons By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science, October 9, 2018 https://www.livescience.com/63783-mystery-fossil-is-oldest-exoskeleton.html Kolesnikov, A.V., Rogov, V.I., Bykova, N.V., Danelian, T., Clausen, S., Maslov, A.V. and Grazhdankin, D.V., 2018. The oldest skeletal macroscopic organism Palaeopascichnus linearis. Precambrian Research, 316, pp.24-37. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301926817307052 http://www.ipgg.sbras.ru/ru/science/publications/publ-the-oldest-skeletal-macroscopic-organism-palaeopascichnus-047874 Yours, Paul H.

from: Science Magazine Gregory J. Retallack, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon (October 3, 2018) Bobrovskiy et al. (1) have assembled impressive biomarker data which rules out three of five alternatives for the biological affinities of the problematic Ediacaran fossils Dickinsonia and Andiva. The cholesterols extracted from the fossils do indeed rule out affinities with lichenized fungi such as Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, and also with Rhizaria. This does not mean that Dickinsonia and Andiva were necessarily animals, because a third fungal phylum, Glomeromycota, also produces cholesterol without ergosterol (2). The living lichenized glomeromycotan, Geosiphon pyriformis, is unusual in housing the photosymbiont inside enlarged cells (3), and its fossil record may include Precambrian problematica such as Horodyskia (4) and Diskagma ranging in age back 2.2 Ga (5). Glomeromycotan fungi are also known from Ediacaran acritarchs with attached hyphae, stalked vesicles, complex wall ultrastructure, and chitin composition demonstrated by FTIR (6). A glomeromycotan lichen fragment preserved by cellular permineralization also has been described from Ediacaran rocks of China (7). Cholesterol in Dickinsonia and Andiva permits both glomeromycotan and animal affinities, but additional observations provide a test of these alternatives. Bobrovskiy et al. (1) also found that the proportion of cholesterol relative to stigmasterol (a chlorophyte biomarker) increased in larger compared with smaller Dickinsonia. This is not what would be expected for a slow-moving or sessile animal increasingly fouled with algae as it grew, nor would such a regular decline be expected from vagaries of animal-feeding on algae. Declining stigmasterol with increasing cholesterol is compatible with building of fungal biomass by controlled populations of photosymbiotic algae. Dickinsonia and Andiva may have been glomeromycotan fungi lichenized with green algae. Undisputed Ediacaran animals trace and body fossils are small (< 5mm diameter) and vermiform with chitin or calcite skeletons, and have been characterized as Ediacaran Wormworld (8). In contrast, Dickinsonia and Andiva are part of a diverse group of large (up to 1.4 m) and unskeletonized, crustose to foliose, quilted organisms, from very different sedimentary facies (9), and could be characterized as Ediacaran Mattressland. References and Notes 1. I. Brobovskiy, et al., Science 361, 1246-1249 (2018). 2. Fontaine et al. Lipids 36, 1357, 2001; J.D. Weete, M. Abril, M. Blackwell, PloS One 5(5), e10899 (2010). 3. A. Schüßler, M.Kluge, M., in The Mycota IX (ed. B. Hock), 151-161 (Springer, Berlin, 2000) 4. G.J. Retallack, K.L. Dunn, J. Saxby, J. Precambrian Research 126, 125–142 (2013). 5. G.J. Retallack, et al., Precambrian Research 235, 71-87 (2013). 6. G.J. Retallack, Botanica Pacifica 4(2), 19-33 (2015). 7. X. Yuan, S. Xiao, T. N. Taylor, Science 308, 1017-1020 (2005) 8. J.D. Schiffbauer et al. GSA Today 26(11), 4-11 (2016) 9. G.J. Retallack, Nature 493, 89-92 (2013), Gondwana Research 36, 94-110 (2016), Alcheringa 40, 583-600 (2016).

I have noticed lately that a lot of fossils of so called Sabellidites cambriensis are popping up on a lot of sites for sale. They're sold as basal annelid worms that arose during the terminal Ediacaran. They predominantly are coming from the Lontova formation, dated at ~541-545 Mya, which is more or less the Ediacaran/Cambrian boundary. I would think that such fossils would be of great interest to researchers since, assuming they are basal annelids, they would represent one of, if not the first, appearances of a modern phylum in the fossil record. Yet the literature on this species is very sparse, with no more than half a dozen papers having been published since it's initial description in 1926. Does anyone here have any information on this subject?

Why life on Earth first got big, University of Cambridge, ScienceDaily, June 25, 2018 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180625122505.htm N.L. fossils take centre stage in new academic paper Sadie-Rae Werner, The Western Star, Newfoundland http://www.thewesternstar.com/news/nl-fossils-take-centre-stage-in-new-academic-paper-222060/ Five things to know about Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, The Telegram, July 18, 2016 http://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/five-things-to-know-about-mistaken-point-ecological-reserve-127401/ The paper is: Emily G. Mitchell, Charlotte G. Kenchington. The utility of height for the Ediacaran organisms of Mistaken Point. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0591-6 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325973266_The_utility_of_height_for_Ediacaran_organisms_of_Mistaken_Point https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily_Mitchell21 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0591-6 Another paper is: Mitchell, E.G. and Butterfield, N.J., 2018. Spatial analyses of Ediacaran communities at Mistaken Point. Paleobiology, 44(1), pp. 40-57. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322724259_Spatial_analyses_of_Ediacaran_communities_at_Mistaken_Point https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324078992_Spatial_analyses_of_Ediacaran_communities_at_Mistaken_Point https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily_Mitchell21 Yours, Paul H.

“Names of recently discovered Ediacaran era fossil animals honor President Barack Obama and Sir David Attenborough“ https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/54142 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/06/19/scientists-discover-fossil-sea-creature-obama/714479002/

These Are the Oldest Known Footprints on the Planet By George Dvorsky, Gizmodo, June 7, 2018 https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-oldest-known-footprints-on-the-planet-1826648702 When did animals leave their first footprint on Earth? Chinese Academy of Sciences, June 6, 2018, Press Release https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/caos-wda060518.php The paper is: Zhe Chen, Xiang Chen, Chuanming Zhou, Xunlai Yuan, and Shuhai Xiao, 2018, Late Ediacaran trackways produced by bilaterian animals with paired appendages Science Advances 06 Jun 2018: Vol. 4, no. 6, eaao6691 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6691 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaao6691 Yours, Paul H.

This question just crossed my mind today, seemingly without provocation: What are the oldest known coprolites in the fossil record, whether from vertebrates or invertebrates? I know of Paleozoic coprolites, but is there any evidence of coprolites before that, perhaps from the Ediacaran? And if there are no pre-Cambrian coprolites recorded, what are the oldest known from the Paleozoic? I have a feeling that @GeschWhat might know a thing or two about this subject since, after all, she is the official Queen of Poopiness on TFF.

During the last years, some presumed fossil stuff from the Kuibis quartzite from the ediacaran Nama fauna of South Africa became available (via several different fossil dealers). It looks always the same and is termed as "medusoid", "Skinnera" or "possibly Albumarid", mostly with question marks which point to the uncertain ID of these specimens. They seem to be quite common since they are not very rare on the market and not very expensive, compared to ediacaran fossils that are assigned to metazoa with a greater degree of certainty. To me, they seem to be the second common ediacaran fossils on the market (after ukrainian Nemiana simplex) and thus a clarification of their identity would be of general interest. That's why I discuss this here in length. They are impressions of globular structures, sometimes surrounded by some smaller ones. They may look like bubbles, but as some of the following pictures show, they are actually globular and not hemispherical as would be the case if they were really bubbles on a surface. The Kuibis quartzite is nearly 550.000.000 years old. They are cyclic sediments from shallow intertidal to subtidal settings (shallow-water settings). The quartzite specimens are probably from the upper part of the Kuibis Supergroup and thus from near-shore marine environments, a little more distant from terrestrial settings than the lower parts. However, though ediacaran fossils are of high interest, I found no informations about these "fossils". Even the wellknown textbook "The rise of animals" vom FEDONKIN et al. (2007) doesn't mention them, in spite of a large chapter about the Nama fauna of Southern Africa, including informations about the Kuibis Supergroup and a short fossil list about the fossils in the upper member (Ernietta, Namalia, Orthogonium, Pteridinium, Rangea), from which the specimens I show here probably come (as indicated by a picture with Rangea schneiderhoehni which seems to come from the same facies). So far, I could resolve all problems with ediacaran fossils and pseudo-fossils with the help of this textbook - except for this. Maybe that's why the textbook is about metaozoa, and the globular fossils here are not considered as metazoa? I show two different specimens. Both specimens yield only impressions (negatives); if they look like positives, it's a welcome optical illusion so there is no need to make silicone casts from them. The largest globular structures are about 9 mm in diameter. The quartzites are laminated. The third picture shows a view from an inclined angle, which demonstrates that the laminations run undisturbed through the globular structures. Thus, the globular structures are positioned within laminated sandstones, but didn't alter the laminations around them. The fourth picture shows the edge of the first specimen. There is also a globular structures with undisturbed (black) laminations at its border on the right. The black layers between the laminations seem to become a bit wider and vesicular when they get in contact with the globular structures. I interprete the thin black layers as microbial mats. (The big dark spot is text marker stain - probably a number had been overwritten). Picture Kuibis 1-h shows two very tiny structures in front of the larger holes; the tiny ones look multilobulate, the larger ones more regularily spherical. Picture Kuibis 2b shows the edge of the second specimen. There are also laminations with very thin black layers, which are suggestive of microbial mats that grew until the next sedimention cycle covered them with sand. It is clear to me that it is impossible to identify the true nature of these specimens - if they are fossils at all. I'm not sure whether they are metazoa (in fact, I doubt this very much) - they could also be large protists (as had bee suggested to occur in the ediacaran age) or colonies formed by unicellular organisms. What I'm looking for: do they have a taxonomic name? If one has such a name, one can follow the current or future discussions about the nature of these specimens. But I haven't found any mention or name for these structures in the literature or internet so far, besides the IDs that are given by the dealers, usually with question marks (Skinnera, Albumarid?), but I think that these names don't match actually. They are also different from Nemiana because of size, different position to one another (Nemiana covers bedding planes in dense populations, sometimes generating a one-layer honeycomb pattern, while the globular structures of the Kuibis are distributed more randomly across the sediments, with local clustering, but not strictly within a bedding plane; they run throughout several bedding planes = laminations; and whereas the top of the Nemiana specimens is flattened and compressed, the globular structures from Kuibis show no signs of compression). One may also consider the possibility that they are no fossils at all. However, the back stain in the reddish quartzites accounts for organic matter, at least at or upon the wall of the globular structures. The black stain of the globular structures is comparable to the small black layers of the laminations which seem to indicate microbial mats. So, if the globular structures themselves were no fossils, they must have been covered by a microbial mat or organic matter of another origin. It is difficult to image that bubbles of gas or something like that might have been preserved in such a globular form, with regard to the pressure and compactation from the layers of sediments upon them. So I think it is difficult to explain them as inorganic globular structures which became dissolved later and left these dark holes in the quartzite. But maybe someones knows more about that? Thanks! araucaria1959

Princeton geologists solve fossil mystery by creating 3-D ‘virtual tour’ through rock, Prnceton University https://www.princeton.edu/news/2018/02/27/princeton-geologists-solve-fossil-mystery-creating-3-d-virtual-tour-through-rock Princeton geologists solve fossil mystery by creating 3-D ‘virtual tour’ through rock, Brinkware, March 1, 2018 http://en.brinkwire.com/179755/princeton-geologists-solve-fossil-mystery-by-creating-3-d-virtual-tour-through-rock/ The paper is: Mehra, A., and Maloof, A., 2018, Multiscale approach reveals that Cloudina aggregates are detritus and not in situ reef constructions. PNAS 2018; published ahead of print February 26, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719911115 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/02/21/1719911115 Yours, Paul H.

Hi all, well this is the second drawing Ive ever made in my life other than stick figures. I consider my last post a total failure (trilobite) so Im trying another subject material. Since the last post, Ive watched a few hours of You tube videos on how to do basic drawings, and hopefully that made a difference. This one took me on and off - about two days to do. So what do you think - Fauna or Flub?

Wendel, J. (2017), Hunting rare fossils of the Ediacaran, Eos, 98, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO086601. Published on 13 November 2017. https://eos.org/features/hunting-rare-fossils-of-the-ediacaran https://eos.org/current-issues “The search for fossil imprints and casts of squishy organisms takes time, perseverance, and sometimes a sprinkle of luck.” Smith, E.F., Nelson, L.L., Tweedt, S.M., Zeng, H. and Workman, J.B., 2017, July. A cosmopolitan late Ediacaran biotic assemblage: new fossils from Nevada and Namibia support a global biostratigraphic link. In Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Vol. 284, No. 1858, p. 20170934). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318379716_A_cosmopolitan_late_Ediacaran_biotic_assemblage_new_fossils_from_Nevada_and_Namibia_support_a_global_biostratigraphic_link https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emily_Smith52 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1858/20170934 A related paper is: E.F. Smith L.L. Nelson M.A. Strange A.E. Eyster S.M. Rowland D.P. Schrag F.A. Macdonald, 2016, The end of the Ediacaran: Two new exceptionally preserved body fossil assemblages from Mount Dunfee, Nevada, USA Geology 44 (11):911-914. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/G38157.1 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53cedb86e4b0710434ee1ff4/t/57fee4eef5e231fadeb000ee/1476322543557/Smith_2016_Geology_Dunfee.pdf https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article/44/11/911/195087/the-end-of-the-ediacaran-two-new-exceptionally Yours, Paul H.

Been some good invertebrate articles out there lately..... https://phys.org/news/2017-09-mysterious-ancient-creature-animal.html

Half-a-billion-year-old fossils shed light animal evolution on earth, University of Manchester, September 11, 2017 http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/half-a-billion-year-old-fossils-shed-new-light-on-animal-evolution/ https://phys.org/news/2017-09-half-a-billion-year-old-fossils-animal-evolution-earth.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170911122628.htm Tha paper is: Parry, L. A., P. C. Boggiani, D. J. Condon, and others, 2017, Ichnological evidence for meiofaunal bilaterians from the terminal Ediacaran and earliest Cambrian of Brazil Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0301-9 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319109419_Ichnological_evidence_for_meiofaunal_bilaterians_from_the_terminal_Ediacaran_and_earliest_Cambrian_of_Brazil https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0301-9 Lidya G. Tarhan, 2017, Meiofauna mute the Cambrian Explosion News and Views, Nature Ecology & Evolution https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0324-2 Yours, Paul H.

Five places that mark Australia's extreme geological past By Dr. Tom Raimondo, ABC Science, July 22, 2017 http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-07-22/five-places-that-mark-australias-extreme-geological-past/8728928 Also, the Australian government released enormous amount of sea floor mapping and other geologic data, which was generated by the MH370 tragedy, to the public. MH370 Search Data Published Reveals Ocean Geology, Shipwrecks and Fishing Grounds, ABC News, July 19, 2017 http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-jet/mh370-search-data-published-reveals-ocean-geology-shipwrecks-fishing-grounds-n784281 MH370 - Phase One Data Release http://marine.projects.ga.gov.au/mh370-phase-one-data-release.html "The search for MH370 involved the collection and analysis of large volumes of marine data from a remote area. The data obtained during the first phase of sea floor mapping is now available to the public." Yours, Paul H.

Shedding light on Earth's first animals. Complex and highly regulated development of Dickinsonia, one of the oldest fossil animals, broadens our understanding of early evolution https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170517154731.htm https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/47122 Scott D. Evans, Mary L. Droser, James G. Gehling. Highly regulated growth and development of the Ediacara macrofossil Dickinsonia costata. Plos One, 2017 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176874 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176874 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176874&type=printable Yours, Paul H.

Life in the Precambrian may have been much livelier than previously thought Vanderbilt University, May 19, 2017 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170519084411.htm https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2017/05/18/life-precambrian-livelier/ "The strange creatures that lived in the Garden of the Ediacaran more than 540 million years ago, before animals came on the scene, may have been much more dynamic than experts have thought." The paper is: Darroch, S., A. F., I. A. Rahman, B. Gibson, R. A. Racicot, and M. Laflamme, 2017, Inference of facultative mobility in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism Parvancorina. Biology Letters, 2017; 13 (5): 20170033 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0033 http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/13/5/20170033 Yours, Paul H.

Conotubus--my new latest favorite fossil. It's an Ediacaran (latest Neoproterozoic--AKA, Precambrian) tubular critter of unestablished zoological affinity (educated guesses include an annelid--specifically some kind of tube worm--or possibly a sea anemone-like animal). And it's been recovered from only two localities on Earth: southern Shaanxi Province, South China; and at one lone site in Nevada. Conotubus shows superficial similarity to the well known Ediacaran tube-type specimen Cloudina, but lacks a mineralized skeleton. Conotubus apparently secreted a tubular home enclosure composed of chitinous material. Image from HERE. Above, two views of the same pyritized (replaced at least partially by pyrite--an iron disulfide, of course, commonly called "fool's gold") Conotubus from the upper Precambrian Esmeralda Member of the upper Precambrian-lower Cambrian Deep Spring Formation, Nevada, where Conotubus occurs several feet below the first appearance of the ichnofossil Trepichnus pedum, which presently helps define (along with geochemical evidence-- a sudden, dramatic negative excursion of a specific carbon isotope) the worldwide base of the Cambrian Period, the transition from Ediacaran times to the earliest moments of the Paleozoic Era. Photograph is a Google Image grab, by the way. Image from HERE. Examples of pyritized Conotubus hemiannulatus from the Ediacaran, late Neoproterozoic Gaojiashan Lagerstätte of southern Shaanxi Province, South China. Photograph is a Google Image grab, by the way.

Spriggina chosen as South Australia’s fossil emblem Jade Gailberger, Environment reporter, Courier Mail February 14, 2017 http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/spriggina-chosen-as-south-australias-fossil-emblem/news-story/b15c8d115af55caef859e16568e37282 Flinders Ranges fossils documented as part of World Heritage listing bid, Nicola Gage Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-12/flinders-ranges-world-heritage-listing-bid/8262494 Trace fossils: the ancient history of SA’s outback In Daily, Australia, Alice Gorman, February 8, 2016 http://indaily.com.au/news/science-and-tech/2017/02/08/trace-fossils-the-ancient-history-of-sas-outback/ Yours, Paul H.