New Ediacaran fossils; a probable predator (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, July 26, 2022, 21:16 (641 days ago) @ David Turell

Had what appear to be protruding tentacles:

https://www.livescience.com/jellyfish-relative-fossil-david-attenborough?utm_campaign=3...

"A bizarre, tentacled creature that lived in the deep ocean 560 million years ago resembled a goblet crammed full of wriggling fingers. It may be an ancient relative of modern jellyfish and the earliest known predator in the animal kingdom, analysis of a newly described fossil suggests.

"More than a decade ago, scientists uncovered a fossil of the purported jellyfish relative in an outcrop of volcanic and sedimentary rocks called the Bradgate Formation in Leicestershire, England. Located in Charnwood Forest, the outcrop formed about 557 million to 562 million years ago, during the Ediacaran period (635 million to 541 million years ago).

"This means that the newly identified fossil predates the Cambrian explosion, a 55-million-year episode in which life on Earth rapidly diversified.

***

"To date, the vast majority of Ediacaran fossils don't share structural features with any living animals, so they're generally thought to belong to extinct animal groups, Donoghue said. "This fossil's probably the oldest one recognized, with quite convincing evidence, to be a member of one of the living phyla," or large groups of related animals, Donoghue said.

***

""This is the first creature, the first animal that we're aware of that actually grew a skeleton," Wilby said. Its tentacle structure hints that A. attenboroughii likely fed on plankton and protists, which would make it the earliest known predator in the animal kingdom.

***

"If A. attenboroughii is indeed a member of Medusozoa, it would belong to a broader group of organisms known as the cnidarians, which also includes corals, sea pens and sea anemones. Prior to the new study, fossil evidence suggested that the basic "blueprint" for cnidarians didn't emerge until the Cambrian period. However, "what we're able to show here is that, at least 20 million years before that, the blueprint for cnidarians was actually set," Wilby said."

***

Comment: no surprise to find some advanced evolution in the Edicaran period. There may be gaps as has been discussed, but evolution is an ongoing process, not a complete stop and start. The Cambrian gap in phenotypical change remains enormous. dhw's sugestion of some advances in the Ediacaran is supported.