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
The identification and characterization of the phosphate preservation of the spherical microfossils in the Ediacaran Doushantuo time and the Early Cambrian has long been controversial.Modern artificial simulation experiments of phosphate animal eggs can provide scientific evidence to settle the aforementioned disputes.This experiment simulated environmental changes to observe the early morphological changes of the Bluntnose black bream eggs(Megalobrama amblycephala).It was found that the eggs can show a different morphology in the phosphate environment and that these eggs exhibited considerable morphological variations under different conditions.Thus,those eggs cannot be ascribed to the same species based only on the features.The experimental results are expected to provide a useful reference for the identification of phosphatized microfossils and provide a more empirical basis for their genesis.
