Did Cloudinids Have the Guts to Be Worms?
Acuticocloudina, bilaterian animals, bilaterian worms, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, Cambrian Small Shelly Fauna, Chengjiang biota, China, Cloudina, cloudinids, cloudinomorphs, cnidarian, Conotubus, Costatubus, Darwinian evolution, Dickinsonia, digestive tract, Ediacaran biota, Ediacaran Period, Ediacaran Small Shelly Fauna, Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary, Evolution, Feiyanella, Germany, GUT, James D. Schiffbauer, Multiconotubus, Nature Communications, Nevada, polyp, Rajatubulus, Saarina, sessile filter feeder, Sinotubulites, skeleton, University of Missouri, Wood Canyon Formation
In my Evolution News article “Why Dickinsonia Was Most Probably Not an Ediacaran Animal” (Bechly 2019), I promised last year to follow up on other alleged Ediacaran animals. Now is a good moment to come back to this, because a new study has just been published in the journal Nature Communications by Schiffbauer et al. (2020), who identify a problematic Ediacaran shelly fossil as a bilateral animal most likely related to annelid worms. The crucial evidence is the alleged preservation of a digestive tract, which would also represent the oldest fossil record for this organ system (Stann 2020). The new fossil is considered to be a close relative of the genus Cloudina, which is a globally distributed Ediacaran index fossil first described by Germs (1972). It represents one of the…