The developmental biology of Charnia and the eumetazoan affinity of the Ediacaran rangeomorphs

Dunn, Frances S.; Liu, Alexander G.; Grazhdankin, Dmitriy V.; Vixseboxse, Philip; Flannery-Sutherland, Joseph; Green, Emily; Harris, Simon; Wilby, Philip R.; Donoghue, Philip C. J.. 2021 The developmental biology of Charnia and the eumetazoan affinity of the Ediacaran rangeomorphs. Science Advances, 7 (30), eabe0291. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0291

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0291

Abstract/Summary

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.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0291
ISSN:	2375-2548
Date made live:	14 Sep 2021 13:55 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531057

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0291

ISSN:

2375-2548

Date made live:

14 Sep 2021 13:55 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531057