The Lantian biota at the Lantian Town of Xiuning County, Anhui Province, is preserved in black shales of the Ediacaran Lantian Formation. It yields some of the oldest known complex macroorganisms, including fan-shaped seaweeds and possible animal fossils with tentacles and intestinal-like structures reminiscent of modern coelenterates and bilaterians. The Lantian Lagerst^itte sheds new light on the origin and early evolution of multicellular organisms in relatively quiet and deep environments soon after the Neoproterozoic Marinoan glaciation. The morphological complexity and diversity of early multicellular organisms may be closely related to sexual reproduction and alternation of generations. The fluctuation of oceanic redox conditions during this peri- od may have played a role in the ecology and preservation of the Lantian biota.
YUAN XunLaiCHEN ZheXIAO ShuHaiWAN BinGUAN ChengGuoWANG WeiZHOU ChuanMingHUA Hong
According to the classic doctrine of angiosperm evolution,the archetype carpel in angiosperms is of plicate form.However,this concept is facing increasing challenges from the systematics based on molecular data,which now takes ascidiate carpel as ancestral.This reorientation in evolutionary thinking cannot be fully achieved unless there is supporting fossil evidence.Here a fruit, named Liaoningfructus,is reported from the famous Yixian Formation(Early Cretaceous,125 Ma), which yielded several pioneer angiosperms in the past decades.The configuration of the fruit suggests that the carpel giving rise to the fruit is most likely ascidiate,favoring the above reorientation.There are two seeds in the fruit,and at least one of them is served by a vascular bundle arising from the bottom of the fruit,implying a basal placentation in the former carpel,which again is different from the classic thinking.This discovery not only enhances the diversity of angiosperms in the Yixian Formation,but also accelerates the on-going switching of thinking on angiosperm evolution.
Chuaria is one of the few globally distributed macrofossil pioneers documented in the Precambrian. It is perhaps the most controversial fossil in term of its affinity despite more than one hundred years of study. Many mutually exclusive affinities have been suggested for this frequently encountered fossil. Although often treated as a multicellular alga, this interpretation remains inconclusive because the lacking unambiguous demonstration of cellular structures. In this paper the cellular details of Chuaria are clearly revealed for the first time. The cell walls in Chuaria suggest that it is a multicellular eukaryotic alga, in agreement with the latest biogeochemical analyses. Different thicknesses of cell walls suggest primary cellular differentiation in this organism. Membrane-like structures within the cells (the first to be reported in Precambrian fossils) imply a eukaryotic nature. This study partially resolves the century-long controversy over the affinity of Chuaria, and makes Chuaria one of the few recognized multicellular eukaryotes before the Neoproterozoic glaciation.
WANG XinYUAN XunLaiZHOU ChuanMingDU KaiHeGONG Miao
Abundant sphaeroidal acritarch Leiosphaeridia asperata,with vesicle size ranging from 13 to 360 μm,occurred in the Proterozoic Liulaobei Formation shales in Huainan,Anhui Province.TEM/SEM studies of these sphaeroidal acritarchs have revealed complex ultrastructures,including ridges,bands,and possible trilaminar structures(TLS).Ridges,spaced ~1 μm apart,are distributed regularly on the vesicle internal surface of one specimen.Some specimens have alternating electron-dense and electron-tenuous bands that are perpendicular to vesicle walls.Some specimens have trilaminar structures(TLS),while a few others have both bands and TLS.These wall ultrastructures provide evidence that the Liulaobei leiosphaerids are of green microalgae.The variation in wall ultrastructures may represent various stages in a life cycle or developmental phases in the cyst formation analogous to some modern chlorophyceaen microalgae.
GONG MiaoZHOU ChuanMingYIN LeiMingYUAN XunLaiWANG ChunZhao
