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Chinese fossils shed light on evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors

Date:
December 23, 2011
Source:
University of Bristol
Summary:
Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in the Earth's history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from South China.
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Evidence of the single-celled ancestors of animals, dating from the interval in Earth's history just before multicellular animals appeared, has been discovered in 570 million-year-old rocks from South China by researchers from the University of Bristol, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, the Paul Scherrer Institut and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

All life evolved from a single-celled universal common ancestor, and at various times in Earth history, single-celled organisms threw their lot in with each other to become larger and multicellular, resulting, for instance, in the riotous diversity of animals. However, fossil evidence of these major evolutionary transitions is extremely rare.

The fossils, reported this week in Science, preserve stages in the life cycle of an amoeba-like organism dividing in asexual cycles, first to produce two cells, then four, eight, 16, 32 and so on, ultimately resulting in hundreds of thousands of spore-like cells that were then released to start the cycle over again. The pattern of cell division is so similar to the early stages of animal (including human) embryology that until now they were thought to represent the embryos of the earliest animals.

The researchers studied the microscopic fossils using high energy X-rays at the Swiss Light Source in Switzerland, revealing the organisation of the cells within their protective cyst walls. The organisms should not have been fossilized -- they were just gooey clusters of cells -- but they were buried in sediments rich in phosphate that impregnated the cell walls and turned them to stone.

Lead author Therese Huldtgren said: "The fossils are so amazing that even their nuclei have been preserved."

Co-author Dr John Cunningham said: "We used a particle accelerator called a synchrotron as our X-ray source. It allowed us to make a perfect computer model of the fossil that we could cut up in any way that we wanted, but without damaging the fossil in any way. We would never have been able to study the fossils otherwise!"

This X-ray microscopy revealed that the fossils had features that multicellular embryos do not, and this led the researchers to the conclusion that the fossils were neither animals nor embryos but rather the reproductive spore bodies of single-celled ancestors of animals.

Professor Philip Donoghue said: "We were very surprised by our results -- we've been convinced for so long that these fossils represented the embryos of the earliest animals -- much of what has been written about the fossils for the last ten years is flat wrong. Our colleagues are not going to like the result."

Professor Stefan Bengtson said: "These fossils force us to rethink our ideas of how animals learned to make large bodies out of cells."

The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, the Swedish Research Council, the Paul Scherrer Institut, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and EU FP7.


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Materials provided by University of Bristol. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Therese Huldtgren, John A. Cunningham, Chongyu Yin, Marco Stampanoni, Federica Marone, Philip C. J. Donoghue, Stefan Bengtson. Fossilized Nuclei and Germination Structures Identify Ediacaran “Animal Embryos” as Encysting Protists. Science, 23 December 2011: Vol. 334 no. 6063 pp. 1696-1699 DOI: 10.1126/science.1209537

Cite This Page:

University of Bristol. "Chinese fossils shed light on evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 December 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222142444.htm>.
University of Bristol. (2011, December 23). Chinese fossils shed light on evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222142444.htm
University of Bristol. "Chinese fossils shed light on evolutionary origin of animals from single-cell ancestors." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111222142444.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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