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Published on: August 6, 2019
Shallow-marine testate amoebae with internal structures from the Lower Devonian of China
Kai Wang1,2, Hong-He Xu1, Bing-Cai Liu1,2
1State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
Abstract:
Testate amoebae, a polyphyletic protist group inhabiting a wide variety of extant ecosystems, have evolved as far back as early Neoproterozoic. However, their fossil record is discontinuous and biased toward empty shells. Here, we report an arcellinid testate amoeba species, Cangwuella ampulliformis gen. nov., sp. nov., from a shallow-marine community in the Early Devonian of Guangxi, southwestern China. With the aid of scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro-tomography, we find that the shell of our testate amoeba contains some acetabuliform structures. Although such configuration does not match exactly with the known internal structures in extant testate amoebae, our fossils highlight the potential of exploring the ecological relationships between fossil testate amoebae and their associated organisms, and increase our knowledge on the diversity of testate amoebae in Early Devonian environments.
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