Cambrian Explosion and Construction of the First Animal Consumer-Driven Marine Ecosystem on Earth

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Evolutionary Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 21116

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life & Environments, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China
Interests: Cambrian Explosion; animal evolution; Lagerstätten; Brachiopods; paleoecology; lifestyles; community complexities

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Guest Editor
Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Interests: Cambrian Explosion; animal evolution; Lagerstätten; Brachiopods; paleoecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biological activity is a major triggering factor driving Earth’s organic and inorganic cycles across the biosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. A key question in Earth’s ecosystem evolution is when and how different animals emerged and flourished and how their appearance impacted the hydrosphere–atmosphere–lithosphere cycles. The Cambrian Explosion of metazoans around the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary interval gave rise to the sudden appearance of essentially all of the readily fossilizable modern animal groups as macro-consumers in the Earth’s oceans. This explosive radiation event for the first time led to the emergence and diversification of animals on Earth and to the establishment of complex trophic webs with animals as consumers originating in the onset of the Phanerozoic oceanic ecosystem.

We are pleased to propose a Special Issue on the occasion of the 120th Anniversaries of Northwest University, Xi'an of China. The Special Issue aims to investigate the at least half-billion-year-old tubular and conical shelled world (sponges, conulariids, chancelloriids, hyoliths, mollusks, tommotiids, and other lophotrochozoans) that are unseen in the present oceans, but arduously recovered by us from the siliciclastic and carbonate rocks of China, Australia, and the Baltic region. In conjunction with body animals preserved in exceptionally preserved biotas (Könversat–Lagerstätten) across China, efforts are underway to understand how the early animals, notably early bilaterians, created the over 500-million-year-old microbial-algae-producer-supported oceanic ecosystems on Earth with no impacts on land plants inhabitable upward. Submissions of reports or descriptions of new fossils only are not on the priority list for this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Zhifei Zhang
Prof. Dr. Lars E. Holmer
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • ecosystem
  • oceanic organisms
  • land life
  • fossil community
  • phanerozoic
  • faunal successions
  • Cambrian Explosion
  • animal evolution
  • Cambrian Lagerstätten
  • paleoecology
  • lifestyles
  • community successions

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 7622 KiB  
Article
A New Chengjiang Worm Sheds Light on the Radiation and Disparity in Early Priapulida
by Deng Wang, Jean Vannier, Jie Sun, Chiyang Yu and Jian Han
Biology 2023, 12(9), 1242; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12091242 - 15 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1709
Abstract
The vast majority of early Paleozoic ecdysozoan worms are often resolved as stem-group Priapulida based on resemblances with the rare modern representatives of the group, such as the structure of the introvert and the number and distribution of scalids (a spiny cuticular outgrowth) [...] Read more.
The vast majority of early Paleozoic ecdysozoan worms are often resolved as stem-group Priapulida based on resemblances with the rare modern representatives of the group, such as the structure of the introvert and the number and distribution of scalids (a spiny cuticular outgrowth) and pharyngeal teeth. In Priapulida, both scalids and teeth create symmetry patterns, and three major diagnostic features are generally used to define the group: 25 longitudinal rows of scalids (five-fold symmetry), 8 scalids around the first introvert circle and the pentagonal arrangement of pharyngeal teeth. Here we describe Ercaivermis sparios gen. et sp. nov., a new priapulid from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte, characterized by an annulated trunk lacking a sclerotized ornament, four pairs of anal hooks and 16 longitudinal rows of scalids along its introvert and eight scalids around each introvert circle, giving the animal an unusual octoradial symmetry. Cladistic analyses resolve Ercaivermis as a stem-group priapulid. Ercaivermis also suggests that several biradial symmetry patterns (e.g., pentagonal, octagonal) expressed in the cuticular ornament, may have co-existed among early Cambrian priapulids and that the pentaradial mode may have become rapidly dominant during the course of evolution, possibly via the standardization of patterning, i.e., the natural selection of one symmetry type over others. Full article
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13 pages, 2981 KiB  
Article
The First Report of the Acrotretoid Brachiopod Hadrotreta from the Tsinghsutung Formation Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4), Guizhou, South China
by Buqing Wei, Yuan Wang, Xinglian Yang and Weiyi Wu
Biology 2023, 12(8), 1083; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12081083 - 3 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1157
Abstract
Hadrotreta is a worldwide acrotretoid brachiopod reported from the Cambrian Series 2 to Miaolingian. Here, a number of well-preserved fossils of Hadrotreta, identified as Hadrotreta cf. H. timchristiorum, were found in the Protoryctocephalus arcticus Zone of the Tsinghsutung Formation of [...] Read more.
Hadrotreta is a worldwide acrotretoid brachiopod reported from the Cambrian Series 2 to Miaolingian. Here, a number of well-preserved fossils of Hadrotreta, identified as Hadrotreta cf. H. timchristiorum, were found in the Protoryctocephalus arcticus Zone of the Tsinghsutung Formation of Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4 in Jianhe, Guizhou, south China. This is the first report of Hadrotreta in China, which enriches its global palaeogeographical distribution. Hadrotreta is very similar to acrotretoids such as Kostjubella, Vandalotreta, Linnarssonia, and Eohadrotreta. It differs from them with its well-developed ventral boss-like apical process, apical pits, and dorsal median sulcus. In view of the palaeogeography of Hadrotreta, this genus was mainly distributed in low-latitude regions. Hadrotreta was only found in south China and Laurentia during the Cambrian Age 4, then expanded its distribution to other regions such as Siberia, Baltica, the Kazakh Terranes, the Far East, and Gondwana Pange during the Miaolingian Epoch. Hadrotreta seems to have shifted from deeper water to shallow-water environments during the period from the Cambrian Series 2 to the Miaolingian. Full article
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20 pages, 3965 KiB  
Article
Amplectobeluid Radiodont Guanshancaris gen. nov. from the Lower Cambrian (Stage 4) Guanshan Lagerstätte of South China: Biostratigraphic and Paleobiogeographic Implications
by Mingjing Zhang, Yu Wu, Weiliang Lin, Jiaxin Ma, Yuheng Wu and Dongjing Fu
Biology 2023, 12(4), 583; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12040583 - 11 Apr 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3682
Abstract
Radiodonta, an extinct stem-euarthropod group, has been considered as the largest predator of Cambrian marine ecosystems. As one of the radiodont-bearing Konservat-Lagerstätten, the Guanshan biota (South China, Cambrian Stage 4) has yielded a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied and biomineralized taxa that are exclusive [...] Read more.
Radiodonta, an extinct stem-euarthropod group, has been considered as the largest predator of Cambrian marine ecosystems. As one of the radiodont-bearing Konservat-Lagerstätten, the Guanshan biota (South China, Cambrian Stage 4) has yielded a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied and biomineralized taxa that are exclusive to this exceptional deposit. “Anomalocariskunmingensis, the most abundant radiodont in the Guanshan biota, was originally assigned to Anomalocaris within the Anomalocarididae. Despite this taxon being formally assigned to the family Amplectobeluidae more recently, its generic assignment remains uncertain. Here, we present new materials of “Anomalocariskunmingensis from the Guanshan biota, and reveal that the frontal appendages possess two enlarged endites; all endites bear one posterior auxiliary spine and up to four anterior auxiliary spines; three robust dorsal spines and one terminal spine protrude from the distal part. These new observations, allied with anatomical features illustrated by previous studies, allow us to assign this taxon to a new genus, Guanshancaris gen. nov. Brachiopod shell bearing embayed injury and incomplete trilobites, associated with frontal appendages in our specimens, to some extent confirm Guanshancaris as a possible durophagous predator. The distribution of amplectobeluids demonstrates that this group is restricted to Cambrian Stage 3 to Drumian, and occurs across South China and Laurentia within the tropics/subtropics belt. Moreover, the amount and abundance of amplectobeluids evidently decreases after the Early–Middle Cambrian boundary, which indicates its possible preference for shallow water, referring to its paleoenvironmental distribution and may be influenced by geochemical, tectonic, and climatic variation. Full article
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21 pages, 4733 KiB  
Article
Aldanella attleborensis (Mollusca) from Cambrian Stage 2 of the Three Gorges Area and Its Stratigraphic Implications
by Yaqin Qiang, Junfeng Guo, Guoxiang Li, Zuchen Song, Jiaxin Peng, Jie Sun, Jian Han and Zhifei Zhang
Biology 2023, 12(2), 261; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12020261 - 7 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2478
Abstract
Some small shelly fossils are important index fossils for global stratigraphic subdivisions and correlations of the Cambrian Terreneuvian. The first appearance datum (FAD) of the cosmopolitan mollusk Aldanella attleborensis has been suggested as one of the potential markers for defining the base of [...] Read more.
Some small shelly fossils are important index fossils for global stratigraphic subdivisions and correlations of the Cambrian Terreneuvian. The first appearance datum (FAD) of the cosmopolitan mollusk Aldanella attleborensis has been suggested as one of the potential markers for defining the base of Cambrian Stage 2. Aldanella fossils were uncommon in South China, and if occurring, were often described as Aldanella yanjiaheensis, A. attleborensis, or indeterminate species in the literature, while A. yanjiaheensis was often taken as a junior synonym of A. attleborensis. Nevertheless, a detailed taxonomic revision of A. yanjiaheensis based on material from its type locality awaits to be made. In this study, we systematically re-evaluated A. yanjiaheensis based on the numerous specimens collected from the base of Member 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation in the Three Gorges area, western Hubei Province of South China. Detailed taxonomic comparison further substantiates that A. yanjiaheensis is a junior synonym of A. attleborensis, signifying its strong potential for a global correlation across paleocontinents. Morphological parameter analyses indicate that the length and width of shell tube of A. attleborensis shows allometric growth. The nearly cosmopolitan distribution and characteristic morphology of A. attleborensis indicate that it can play a significant role in the subdivision and correlation of Cambrian Stage 2. The co-occurrence of A. attleborensis and Watsonella crosbyi from the base of Member 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation corroborates that Member 5 belongs to Cambrian Stage 2. Full article
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15 pages, 3676 KiB  
Article
Fibrous or Prismatic? A Comparison of the Lamello-Fibrillar Nacre in Early Cambrian and Modern Lophotrochozoans
by Luoyang Li, Marissa J. Betts, Hao Yun, Bing Pan, Timothy P. Topper, Guoxiang Li, Xingliang Zhang and Christian B. Skovsted
Biology 2023, 12(1), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010113 - 11 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2419
Abstract
The Precambrian–Cambrian interval saw the first appearance of disparate modern metazoan phyla equipped with a wide array of mineralized exo- and endo-skeletons. However, the current knowledge of this remarkable metazoan skeletonization bio-event and its environmental interactions is limited because uncertainties have persisted in [...] Read more.
The Precambrian–Cambrian interval saw the first appearance of disparate modern metazoan phyla equipped with a wide array of mineralized exo- and endo-skeletons. However, the current knowledge of this remarkable metazoan skeletonization bio-event and its environmental interactions is limited because uncertainties have persisted in determining the mineralogy, microstructure, and hierarchical complexity of these earliest animal skeletons. This study characterizes in detail a previously poorly understood fibrous microstructure—the lamello-fibrillar (LF) nacre—in early Cambrian mollusk and hyolith shells and compares it with shell microstructures in modern counterparts (coleoid cuttlebones and serpulid tubes). This comparative study highlights key differences in the LF nacre amongst different lophotrochozoan groups in terms of mineralogical compositions and architectural organization of crystals. The results demonstrate that the LF nacre is a microstructural motif confined to the Mollusca. This study demonstrates that similar fibrous microstructure in Cambrian mollusks and hyoliths actually represent a primitive type of prismatic microstructure constituted of calcitic prisms. Revision of these fibrous microstructures in Cambrian fossils demonstrates that calcitic shells are prevalent in the so-called aragonite sea of the earliest Cambrian. This has important implications for understanding the relationship between seawater chemistry and skeletal mineralogy at the time when skeletons were first acquired by early lophotrochozoan biomineralizers. Full article
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18 pages, 4530 KiB  
Article
OcruranusEohalobia Sclerites from the Cambrian Stage 2 Yanjiahe Formation in South China: Scleritome Reconstruction and Zoological Affinity
by Zuchen Song, Junfeng Guo, Bing Pan, Yaqin Qiang, Guoxiang Li, Jiaxin Peng, Jie Sun and Jian Han
Biology 2022, 11(11), 1648; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11111648 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1512
Abstract
The isolated sclerites of the Ocruranus and Eohalobia group are abundant among the early Cambrian small shelly fossil assemblages, which were recently assigned to the same scleritome as an early member of the polyplacophoran (chiton) stem lineage. However, the scleritome reconstruction and zoological [...] Read more.
The isolated sclerites of the Ocruranus and Eohalobia group are abundant among the early Cambrian small shelly fossil assemblages, which were recently assigned to the same scleritome as an early member of the polyplacophoran (chiton) stem lineage. However, the scleritome reconstruction and zoological affinities of these sclerites are still controversial due to the lack of exceptionally preserved articulated specimens with in-situ sclerites. Herein, we report new specimens of Ocruranus and Eohalobia sclerites from Member 5 of the Yanjiahe Formation, which provide new insights into the reconstruction of the original scleritome. The Eohalobia sclerites from the Yanjiahe Formation have an extended and upfolded proximal field with dense wrinkles, which seems to be a weakly mineralized structure and acted as a joint with another sclerite, Ocruranus. Comparing the butterfly-shaped proximal field on a unique sclerite of Eohalobia with the sub-apical field on Ocruranus sclerites suggests that the original scleritome of this group may consist of only two types of sclerites: the Ocruranus-type and the Eohalobia-type. The polygonal structure on the internal mold of Eohalobia sclerites is interpreted herein as the muscle attachment zone; their distribution corresponds well with that of the modern chitons, which provides strong evidence to support the close relationship between the OcruranusEohalobia group and the Polyplacophora. Full article
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21 pages, 6780 KiB  
Article
Ventral Morphology of the Non-Trilobite Artiopod Retifacies abnormalis Hou, Chen & Lu, 1989, from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, China
by Maoyin Zhang, Yu Liu, Xianguang Hou, Javier Ortega-Hernández, Huijuan Mai, Michel Schmidt, Roland R. Melzer and Jin Guo
Biology 2022, 11(8), 1235; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11081235 - 19 Aug 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3516
Abstract
The artiopodans represent a diverse group of euarthropods with a typically flattened dorsal exoskeleton that covers numerous pairs of biramous ventral appendages, and which are ubiquitous faunal components of the 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Lagerstätte in South China. Despite their abundance, several Chengjiang artiopodans remain [...] Read more.
The artiopodans represent a diverse group of euarthropods with a typically flattened dorsal exoskeleton that covers numerous pairs of biramous ventral appendages, and which are ubiquitous faunal components of the 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Lagerstätte in South China. Despite their abundance, several Chengjiang artiopodans remain poorly known, such as the large euarthropoda Retifacies abnormalis, Hou, Chen & Lu, 1989, which is distinguished by the presence of mesh-like ornamentation on its dorsal exoskeleton. Although only a few ventral details were described in a single study in 25 years, it has been frequently featured in phylogenetic analyses that explore the relationships between Cambrian euarthropods. Here, we employ micro-CT and fluorescent microphotography to investigate the exceptionally preserved ventral morphology of R. abnormalis and explore its phylogenetic implications through maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. Detailed morphology revealed here better supports R. abnormalis as a sister group to the diminutive artiopod Pygmaclypeatus daziensis, also known from Chengjiang, and strengthens the close relationship of these taxa that have been suggested by previous studies as early-branching representatives of Trilobitomorpha. Cephalic appendages suggest this animal might be a scavenger, possibly feeding on soft-bodied organisms. Different pairs of pygidial appendages suggest an anamorphic post-embryonic ontogeny, which adds to the understanding of the developmental mode of Cambrian artiopods, and further supports the statement that post-hatching segment addition occurred in the ancestor of Euarthropoda. Full article
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14 pages, 11774 KiB  
Article
A fresh look at the Hyolithid Doliutheca from the Early Cambrian (Stage 4) Shipai Formation of the Three Gorges Area, Hubei, South China
by Fan Liu, Christian B. Skovsted, Timothy P. Topper and Zhifei Zhang
Biology 2022, 11(6), 875; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11060875 - 7 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2044
Abstract
New hyolith specimens from the early Cambrian (Stage 4) of the Three Gorges area, western Hubei Province are described and assigned to the species Doliutheca orientalis. Doliutheca are preserved in two taphonomic modes: casts in silty mudstone revealing gross morphology and some [...] Read more.
New hyolith specimens from the early Cambrian (Stage 4) of the Three Gorges area, western Hubei Province are described and assigned to the species Doliutheca orientalis. Doliutheca are preserved in two taphonomic modes: casts in silty mudstone revealing gross morphology and some soft parts, and internal molds in calcareous pelites, which exhibit new morphological details of the conch and operculum. SEM and Micro-CT analyses show that Doliutheca preserve well-developed platy clavicles and cardinal processes on the interior of the operculum composed of rod-shaped tubular elements. This observation and the distinct cardinal and conical shields of the operculum indicate that Doliutheca could be placed within the Family Paramicrocornidae, most recently established as a group of hyoliths closely related to hyolithids. Full article
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