Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The developmental biology of Charnia and the eumetazoan affinity of the Ediacaran rangeomorphs. / Dunn, Frances S.; Liu, Alexander G.; Grazhdankin, Dmitriy V. et al.
In: Science advances, Vol. 7, No. 30, eabe0291, 07.2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The developmental biology of Charnia and the eumetazoan affinity of the Ediacaran rangeomorphs
AU - Dunn, Frances S.
AU - Liu, Alexander G.
AU - Grazhdankin, Dmitriy V.
AU - Vixseboxse, Philip
AU - Flannery-Sutherland, Joseph
AU - Green, Emily
AU - Harris, Simon
AU - Wilby, Philip R.
AU - Donoghue, Philip C.J.
N1 - Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Molecular timescales estimate that early animal lineages diverged tens of millions of years before their earliest unequivocal fossil evidence. The Ediacaran macrobiota (∼574 to 538 million years ago) are largely eschewed from this debate, primarily due to their extreme phylogenetic uncertainty, but remain germane. We characterize the development of Charnia masoni and establish the affinity of rangeomorphs, among the oldest and most enigmatic components of the Ediacaran macrobiota. We provide the first direct evidence for the internal interconnected nature of rangeomorphs and show that Charnia was constructed of repeated branches that derived successively from pre-existing branches. We find homology and rationalize morphogenesis between disparate rangeomorph taxa, before producing a phylogenetic analysis, resolving Charnia as a stem-eumetazoan and expanding the anatomical disparity of that group to include a long-extinct bodyplan. These data bring competing records of early animal evolution into closer agreement, reformulating our understanding of the evolutionary emergence of animal bodyplans.
AB - Molecular timescales estimate that early animal lineages diverged tens of millions of years before their earliest unequivocal fossil evidence. The Ediacaran macrobiota (∼574 to 538 million years ago) are largely eschewed from this debate, primarily due to their extreme phylogenetic uncertainty, but remain germane. We characterize the development of Charnia masoni and establish the affinity of rangeomorphs, among the oldest and most enigmatic components of the Ediacaran macrobiota. We provide the first direct evidence for the internal interconnected nature of rangeomorphs and show that Charnia was constructed of repeated branches that derived successively from pre-existing branches. We find homology and rationalize morphogenesis between disparate rangeomorph taxa, before producing a phylogenetic analysis, resolving Charnia as a stem-eumetazoan and expanding the anatomical disparity of that group to include a long-extinct bodyplan. These data bring competing records of early animal evolution into closer agreement, reformulating our understanding of the evolutionary emergence of animal bodyplans.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111173929&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.abe0291
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abe0291
M3 - Article
C2 - 34301594
AN - SCOPUS:85111173929
VL - 7
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
SN - 2375-2548
IS - 30
M1 - eabe0291
ER -
ID: 33991507