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A late-Ediacaran crown-group sponge animal.

Xiaopeng Wang1,2,3, Alexander G Liu3, Zhe Chen1,2

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A newly discovered Precambrian sponge fossil, Helicolocellus cantori, reveals that early sponges possessed organic skeletons and lacked mineralized spicules. This finding challenges previous criteria for identifying ancient sponge life.

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Area of Science:

  • Paleontology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Geology

Background:

  • Sponges are basal metazoans crucial for understanding early animal evolution.
  • Molecular clocks suggest sponge divergence in the Neoproterozoic, but fossil evidence is scarce before the Cambrian.
  • Precambrian sponges may have been non-biomineralized, complicating fossil identification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe a new fossil organism, Helicolocellus cantori, from the late Ediacaran period.
  • To investigate the early evolution and skeletal structures of Precambrian sponges.
  • To re-evaluate the criteria for identifying Precambrian sponge fossils.

Main Methods:

  • Fossil description and reconstruction of Helicolocellus cantori from the Dengying Formation.
  • Analysis of the fossil's unique grid-like organic skeleton.
  • Bayesian phylogenetic analysis to determine its evolutionary relationships.

Main Results:

  • Discovery of Helicolocellus cantori, a large, stemmed, goblet-shaped organism with a fractal-patterned organic skeleton.
  • Phylogenetic analysis places H. cantori within the crown-group sponges, related to Hexactinellida.
  • The fossil confirms the existence of non-biomineralizing sponges with organic skeletons in the Precambrian.

Conclusions:

  • Sponges existed in the Precambrian with organic skeletons, predating biomineralization.
  • Biomineralized spicules may not be a universal or necessary characteristic for identifying early sponge fossils.
  • This discovery impacts our understanding of early metazoan evolution and the criteria for fossil identification.