Macroscopic multicellular organisms from 1.56 billion years ago

[muriel_volestrangler]

Fossils of macroscopic eukaryotes are rarely older than the Ediacaran Period (635–541 million years (Myr)), and their interpretation remains controversial. Here, we report the discovery of macroscopic fossils from the 1,560-Myr-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation, Yanshan area, North China, that exhibit both large size and regular morphology. Preserved as carbonaceous compressions, the Gaoyuzhuang fossils have statistically regular linear to lanceolate shapes up to 30?cm long and nearly 8?cm wide, suggesting that the Gaoyuzhuang fossils record benthic multicellular eukaryotes of unprecedentedly large size. Syngenetic fragments showing closely packed ?10??m cells arranged in a thick sheet further reinforce the interpretation. Comparisons with living thalloid organisms suggest that these organisms were photosynthetic, although their phylogenetic placement within the Eukarya remains uncertain. The new fossils provide the strongest evidence yet that multicellular eukaryotes with decimetric dimensions and a regular developmental program populated the marine biosphere at least a billion years before the Cambrian Explosion.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11500

So, something like seaweed ( "thalloid" ).

[Glorfindel]

1. Fascinating!

Thank you for posting such an interesting article, muriel_volestrangler. I love this kind of thing.

[denbot]

2. As a lower division undergrad I cut mounted and surveyed slides of the Beck Springs Dolomite algals

They were roughly 1.2 to 1.4 billion years old mostly eucaryotic algal micro fossils, and the occasional WTF's that my professor told me that I was years from even guessing at what they could be. I/we were hoping to catch them in the process of cellular division, confirming that they were in fact fossils and not non biologic artifacts.

I transferred before I; went blind, ground my fingers literally to the bone, or went nuts with the tedium that is the core of much research.

Looking back.. good times.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Macroscopic Eukaryotes From The Boring Billion

SUNDAY, 29 MAY 2016

Fossil and genetic evidence pushes the origin of eukaryotes close to two billion years ago. This allows the event to be reliably linked to the increase in atmospheric oxygen and the swathe of environmental changes accompanying it.

Single celled and microscopic multicellular forms are well documented from 1.5 billion years onwards. Macroscopic eukaryotes, however, have only been found in rocks several hundred million years younger still. The reasons for this delay are somewhat unclear, but can be correlated to a billion year period of geochemical stagnation following the Great Oxidation Event.

Now a recent fossil discovery in China, from the Gaoyuzhuang Formation has pushed back the record of macroscopic eukaryotes much closer to the origin of complex cells themselves. Previous reports of macroscopic eukaryotes of comparable ages were dismissed as inorganic artifacts of preservation or as colonies of prokaryotes with complex morphologies. The 1.56 billion year old Chinese discoveries, however, are undeniably eukaryotic. Microscopic sheets of cells with an organised, complex eukaryotic character were found in the same beds as carbonaceous impressions, a third of which fell into four discrete morphological categories. At 30 centimetres long and 8 centimetres wide, the largest specimen was far larger than any of the previously reported (and debunked) oldest macroscopic eukaryotes.

'Our discovery pushes back nearly one billion years the appearance of macroscopic, multicellular eukaryotes compared to previous research,' said Maoyan Zhu from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology.

. . .



The 1.56 billion year old microscopic cell
fragments from the Gaoyuzhuang Formation

More:
http://prehistoricict.blogspot.com/2016/05/macroscopic-eukaryotes-from-boring.html

~ ~ ~

Decimetre-scale multicellular eukaryotes from the 1.56-billion-year-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation in North China

Abstract
Fossils of macroscopic eukaryotes are rarely older than the Ediacaran Period (635-541 million years (Myr)), and their interpretation remains controversial. Here, we report the discovery of macroscopic fossils from the 1,560-Myr-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation, Yanshan area, North China, that exhibit both large size and regular morphology. Preserved as carbonaceous compressions, the Gaoyuzhuang fossils have statistically regular linear to lanceolate shapes up to 30 cm long and nearly 8 cm wide, suggesting that the Gaoyuzhuang fossils record benthic multicellular eukaryotes of unprecedentedly large size. Syngenetic fragments showing closely packed ?10 ?m cells arranged in a thick sheet further reinforce the interpretation. Comparisons with living thalloid organisms suggest that these organisms were photosynthetic, although their phylogenetic placement within the Eukarya remains uncertain. The new fossils provide the strongest evidence yet that multicellular eukaryotes with decimetric dimensions and a regular developmental program populated the marine biosphere at least a billion years before the Cambrian Explosion.

More:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303318932_Decimetre-scale_multicellular_eukaryotes_from_the_156-billion-year-old_Gaoyuzhuang_Formation_in_North_China

~ ~ ~

Carbonaceous biosignatures of the earliest putative macroscopic multicellular eukaryotes from 1630 Ma Tuanshanzi Formation, north China

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301926817303030

~ ~ ~

I have never read any of these terms, and am amazed there are people here who actually know about the subject.

The idea there is a fossil of something over a billion years old in existence is far more than enough to overwhelm a clueless person. Wow.