One explanation for the Early Neoproterozoic expansion of eukaryotes is the appearance of eukaryovorous predators—i.e. protists that preyed on other protists. Evidence for eukaryovory at this time, ...however, is indirect, based on inferences from character state reconstructions and molecular clocks, and on the presence of possible defensive structures in some protistan fossils. Here I describe 0.1–3.4 µm circular holes in seven species of organic-walled microfossils from the 780–740 million-year-old Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, that are similar to those formed today by predatory protists that perforate the walls of their prey to consume the contents inside. Although best known in the vampyrellid amoebae, this ‘vampire-like’ behaviour is widespread among eukaryotes, making it difficult to infer confidently the identity of the predator. Nonetheless, the identity of the prey is clear: some—and perhaps all—of the fossils are eukaryotes. These holes thus provide the oldest direct evidence for predation on eukaryotes. Larger circular and half-moon-shaped holes in vase-shaped microfossils from the upper part of the unit may also be the work of ‘tiny vampires’, suggesting a diversity of eukaryovorous predators lived in the ancient Chuar sea.
Eukaryogenesis-the process by which the eukaryotic cell emerged-has long puzzled scientists. It has been assumed that the fossil record has little to say about this process, in part because important ...characters such as the nucleus and mitochondria are rarely preserved, and in part because the prevailing model of early eukaryotes implies that eukaryogenesis occurred before the appearance of the first eukaryotes recognized in the fossil record. Here, I propose a different scenario for early eukaryote evolution than is widely assumed. Rather than crown group eukaryotes originating in the late Paleoproterozoic and remaining ecologically minor components for more than half a billion years in a prokaryote-dominated world, I argue for a late Mesoproterozoic origin of the eukaryotic crown group, implying that eukaryogenesis can be studied using the fossil record. I review the proxy records of four crown group characters: the capacity to form cysts as evidenced by the presence of excystment structures; a complex cytoskeleton as evidenced by spines or pylomes; sterol synthesis as evidenced by steranes; and aerobic respiration-and therefore mitochondria-as evidenced by eukaryotes living in oxic environments, and argue that it might be possible to use these proxy records to infer the order in which these characters evolved. The records indicate that both cyst formation and a complex cytoskeleton appeared by late Paleoproterozoic time, and sterol synthesis appeared in the late Mesoproterozioc or early Neoproterozoic. The origin of aerobic respiration cannot as easily be pinned down, but current evidence permits the possibility that it evolved sometime in the Mesoproterozoic.
The origin of modern eukaryotes is one of the key transitions in life's history, and also one of the least understood. Although the fossil record provides the most direct view of this process, ...interpreting the fossils of early eukaryotes and eukaryote-grade organisms is not straightforward. We present two end-member models for the evolution of modern (i.e., crown) eukaryotes-one in which modern eukaryotes evolved early, and another in which they evolved late-and interpret key fossils within these frameworks, including where they might fit in eukaryote phylogeny and what they may tell us about the evolution of eukaryotic cell biology and ecology. Each model has different implications for understanding the rise of complex life on Earth, including different roles of Earth surface oxygenation, and makes different predictions that future paleontological studies can test.
The first appearances of aragonite and calcite skeletons in 18 animal clades that independently evolved mineralization during the late Ediacaran through the Ordovician (approximately 550 to 444 ...million years ago) correspond to intervals when seawater chemistry favored aragonite and calcite precipitation, respectively. Skeletal mineralogies rarely changed once skeletons evolved, despite subsequent changes in seawater chemistry. Thus, the selection of carbonate skeletal minerals appears to have been dictated by seawater chemistry at the time a clade first acquired its mineralized skeleton.
Crystallization by particle attachment (CPA) of amorphous precursors has been demonstrated in modern biomineralized skeletons across a broad phylogenetic range of animals. Precisely the same ...precursors, hydrated (ACC-H₂O) and anhydrous calcium carbonate (ACC), have been observed spectromicroscopically in echinoderms, mollusks, and cnidarians, phyla drawn from the 3 major clades of eumetazoans. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) here also shows evidence of CPA in tunicate chordates. This is surprising, as species in these clades have no common ancestor that formed a mineralized skeleton and appear to have evolved carbonate biomineralization independently millions of years after their late Neoproterozoic divergence. Here we correlate the occurrence of CPA from ACC precursor particles with nanoparticulate fabric and then use the latter to investigate the antiquity of the former. SEM images of early biominerals from Ediacaran and Cambrian shelly fossils show that these early calcifiers used attachment of ACC particles to form their biominerals. The convergent evolution of biomineral CPA may have been dictated by the same thermodynamics and kinetics as we observe today.
Few topics in geobiology have been as extensively debated as the role of Earth's oxygenation in controlling when and why animals emerged and diversified. All currently described animals require ...oxygen for at least a portion of their life cycle. Therefore, the transition to an oxygenated planet was a prerequisite for the emergence of animals. Yet, our understanding of Earth's oxygenation and the environmental requirements of animal habitability and ecological success is currently limited; estimates for the timing of the appearance of environments sufficiently oxygenated to support ecologically stable populations of animals span a wide range, from billions of years to only a few million years before animals appear in the fossil record. In this light, the extent to which oxygen played an important role in controlling when animals appeared remains a topic of debate. When animals originated and when they diversified are separate questions, meaning either one or both of these phenomena could have been decoupled from oxygenation. Here, we present views from across this interpretive spectrum—in a point–counterpoint format—regarding crucial aspects of the potential links between animals and surface oxygen levels. We highlight areas where the standard discourse on this topic requires a change of course and note that several traditional arguments in this “life versus environment” debate are poorly founded. We also identify a clear need for basic research across a range of fields to disentangle the relationships between oxygen availability and emergence and diversification of animal life.
Ancestral test morphologies predicted from a new phylogeny of arcellinid amoebae show a striking resemblance to microscopic fossilized tests found worldwide in rocks 790–730 million years old.
...Ancestral test morphologies predicted from a new phylogeny of arcellinid amoebae show a striking resemblance to microscopic fossilized tests found worldwide in rocks 790–730 million years old.
The ca. 780–740 Ma Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, Arizona, provides an exceptional record of life during the diversification of crown-group eukaryotes, just prior to the first Cryogenian glaciation. We ...document in detail the assemblage of organic-walled microfossils preserved in fine-grained siliciclastics throughout the unit. In contrast with earlier studies, we primarily used SEM to document fossil morphologies, augmented by transmitted light microscopy, FIB-SEM, and TEM. This resulted in the discovery of new species and the recognition of broad-ranging, intraspecific biological and taphonomic variation in other species. Twenty-two species and five unnamed morphotypes are described, including three new species: Kaibabia gemmulella, Microlepidopalla mira, and Volleyballia dehlerae; two new combinations: Galerosphaera walcottii and Lanulatisphaera laufeldii; and 17 previously described forms. The possible colonial green alga Palaeastrum dyptocranumButterfield in Butterfield, Knoll, and Swett, 1994 and the index fossil Cerebrosphaera globosa (Ogurtsova and Sergeev, 1989) Sergeev and Schopf, 2010 (= C. buickii Butter-field, 1994) are described for the first time from Chuar rocks. Lanulatisphaera laufeldii, a locally abundant and globally widespread species characterized by submicrometer filamentous processes that form a reticulate network, may be a useful marker for the time interval just before the appearance of vase-shaped microfossils (VSMs) ca. 740 Ma. Organic-walled microfossil assemblages decline in diversity upsection, coincident with the appearance of VSMs and intermittent euxinia within the basin. Whether this pattern is due to preservational bias related to greater water depth or the higher TOC of upper Chuar rocks or instead reflects biotic turnover related to the spread of euxinic water masses in the basin is unknown.
Estimates of Precambrian eukaryotic diversity and disparity indicate broad trends of increase in the Mesoproterozoic Era, leading to a peak and then rapid decline by ca. 750 Ma. The organic-walled ...microfossil assemblage presented here is representative of that mid-Neoproterozoic height of eukaryotic species richness. Organic-rich shales and siltstones of the mid-Neoproterozoic upper Alinya Formation, eastern Officer Basin, Australia, preserve an abundant and diverse assemblage of organic-walled microfossils deposited in a low-latitude, shallow marine setting. Use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed an unexpected level of morphological detail not visible in transmitted light microscopy. This led to the recognition of new species as well as establishment of degradational sequences, which aid in fossil recognition. In total, 26 taxa are described here; these include 21 previously named forms, four newly described species (Caelatimurus foveolatus, Culcitulisphaera revelata, Karenagare alinyaensis, and Morgensternia officerensis), and one new combination (Vidalopalla verrucata).
Although biomineralized skeletal elements dominate the Phanerozoic fossil record, they did not become common until ~550–520 Ma when independent acquisitions of biomineralization appeared in multiple ...lineages of animals and a few protists (single‐celled eukaryotes). Evidence of biomineralization preceding the late Ediacaran is spotty aside from the apatitic scale microfossils of the ~811 Ma Fifteenmile Group, northwestern Canada. Here, we describe scale‐shaped microfossils from four vase‐shaped microfossil (VSM)‐bearing units of later Tonian age: the Togari Group of Tasmania, Chuar and Pahrump groups of southwestern United States, and the Roaldtoppen Group of Svalbard. These scale‐shaped microfossils consist of thin, ~13 micron‐long plates typically surrounded by a 1–3 micron‐thick colorless envelope; they are found singly and in heterotypic and monotypic clusters of a few to >20 specimens. Raman spectroscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy indicate these microfossils are composed of apatite and kerogen, just as is seen in the Fifteenmile Group scale microfossils. Despite compositional similarity, however, these scales are probably not homologous, representing instead, an independent acquisition of apatite mineralization. We propose that these apatite‐kerogen scale‐shaped microfossils are skeletal elements of a protistan cell. In particular, their consistent co‐occurrence with VSMs, and similarities with scales of arcellinid testate amoebae, a group to which the VSMs are thought to belong, suggest the possibility that these microfossils may be test‐forming scales of ancient arcellinid testate amoebae. The apparent apatite biomineralization in both these microfossils and the Fifteenmile scales is unexpected given its exceedingly rare use in skeletons of modern protists. This modern absence is attributed to the extravagance of using a limiting nutrient in a structural element, but multiple occurrences of apatite biomineralization in the Tonian suggest that phosphorus was not a limiting nutrient for these organisms, a suggestion consistent with the idea that dissolved seawater phosphate concentrations may have been higher at this time.
PDF
