Skip to content Skip to navigation

Article: New data on the palaeobiology of the enigmatic yunnanozoans from the Chengjiang Biota, Lower Cambrian, China

Publication: Palaeontology
Volume: 58
Part: 1
Publication Date: January 2015
Page(s): 45 – 70
Author(s): Pei-Yun Cong, Xian-Guang Hou, Richard J. Aldridge, Mark A. Purnell and Yi-Zhen Li
Addition Information

How to Cite

CONG, P.-Y., HOU, X.-G., ALDRIDGE, R.J., PURNELL, M.A., LI, Y.-Z. 2015. New data on the palaeobiology of the enigmatic yunnanozoans from the Chengjiang Biota, Lower Cambrian, China. Palaeontology, 58, 1, 45-70.

Author Information

  • Pei-Yun Cong - Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China (email: cong@ynu.edu.cn)
  • Xian-Guang Hou - Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China (email: xghou@ynu.edu.cn)
  • Richard J. Aldridge* - Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
  • Richard J. Aldridge* - Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  • Mark A. Purnell - Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK (email: map2@le.ac.uk)
  • Yi-Zhen Li - Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
  • Yi-Zhen Li - State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China

*Deceased

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 7 JAN 2015
  • Article first published online: 9 JUN 2014
  • Manuscript Accepted: 5 MAY 2014
  • Manuscript Received: 12 NOV 2013

Funded By

NSFC. Grant Numbers: 40962001, U1302232
Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province. Grant Number: 2009ZC008M
Royal Society. Grant Number: JP081054
UK Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Numbers: NE/E015336/1, NE/K004557/1

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library (Free Access)
Get Article: Wiley Online Library [Free Access]

References

  • Aldridge, R. J., Hou, X.-G., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J. and Gabbott, S. E. 2007. The systematics and phylogenetic relationships of vetulicolians. Palaeontology, 50, 131–168.
  • Bergström, M. J. 1997. Origin of high-rank groups of organisms. Paleontological Research, 1, 1–14.
  • Bergström, M. J. 2010. The earliest arthropods and other animals. 28–42. In Long, M.-Y., Gu, H.-Y. and Zhou, Z.-H. (eds). Darwin's heritage today: proceedings of the Darwin 200 Beijing International Conference. Higher Education Press, Beijing, 383 pp.
  • Bergström, M. J., Naumann, W. W., Viehweg, J. and Martí-Mus, M. 1998. Conodonts, calcichordates and the origin of vertebrates. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin Geowissenschaftliche Reihe, 1, 81–91.
  • Blair, S. S. 2008. Segmentation in animals. Current Biology, 18, R991–R995.
  • Briggs, D. E. G. 1995. Experimental taphonomy. Palaios, 10, 539–550.
  • Brusca, R. C. and Brusca, G. J. 2003. Invertebrates. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts, xix + 936 pp.
  • Budd, G. E. and Jensen, S. 2000. A critical reappraisal of the fossil record of the bilaterian phyla. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 75, 253–295.
  • Butterfield, N. J. 2003. Exceptional fossil preservation and the Cambrian explosion. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 43, 166–177.
  • Cameron, C. B. 2002. Particle retention and flow in the pharynx of the enteropneust worm Harrimania planktophilus: the filter-feeding pharynx may have evolved before the chordates. The Biological Bulletin, 202, 192–200.
  • Chen, A.-L. and Huang, D.-Y. 2006. Gill rays found on the Early Cambrian primitive vertebrate Yunnanozoon. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 45, 345–350. [In Chinese with English summary]
  • Chen, J.-Y. 2004. The dawn of the animal world. Phoenix Science Press, Nanjing, 366 pp. [In Chinese].
  • Chen, J.-Y. 2008. Early crest animals and the insight they provide into the evolutionary origin of craniates. Genesis, 46, 623–639.
  • Chen, J.-Y. 2011. The origins and key innovations of vertebrates and arthropods. Palaeoworld, 20, 257–278.
  • Chen, J.-Y. and Li, C.-W. 1997. Early Cambrian chordate from Chengjiang, China. Bulletin of the National Museum of Natural Science, 10, 257–273.
  • Chen, J.-Y., Dzik, J., Edgecombe, G. D., Ramsköld, L. and Zhou, G.-Q. 1995. A possible Early Cambrian chordate. Nature, 377, 720–722.
  • Chen, J.-Y., Huang, D.-Y. and Li, C.-W. 1999. An early Cambrian craniate-like chordate. Nature, 402, 518–522.
  • Chipman, A. D. 2010. Parallel evolution of segmentation by co-option of ancestral gene regulatory networks. BioEssays, 32, 60–70.
  • Cole, A. G. and Hall, B. K. 2004. The nature and significance of invertebrate cartilages revisited: distribution and histology of cartilage and cartilage-like tissues within the Metazoa. Zoology, 107, 261–273.
  • Conway Morris, S. 2000. The Cambrian ‘explosion’: slow-fuse or megatonnage? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97, 4426–4429.
  • Conway Morris, S. and Caron, J.-B. 2012. Pikaia gracilens Walcott, a stem-group chordate from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia. Biological Reviews, 87, 480–512.
  • Couso, J. P. 2009. Segmentation, metamerism and the Cambrian explosion. The International Journal of Developmental Biology, 53, 1305–1316.
  • Damen, W. G. M. 2007. Evolutionary conservation and divergence of the segmentation process in arthropods. Developmental Dynamics, 236, 1379–1391.
  • De Robertis, E. M. 2008a. Evo-devo: variations on ancestral themes. Cell, 132, 185–195.
  • De Robertis, E. M. 2008b. The molecular ancestry of segmentation mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 16411–16412.
  • Dewel, R. A. 2000. Colonial origin for Eumetazoa: major morphological transitions and the origin of bilaterian complexity. Journal of Morphology, 243, 35–74.
  • Donoghue, P. C. J. and Purnell, M. A. 2009. Distinguishing heat from light in debate over controversial fossils. BioEssays, 31, 178–189.
  • Dzik, J. 1995. Yunnanozoon and the ancestry of chordates. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 40, 341–360.
  • Edgecombe, G., Giribet, G., Dunn, C., Hejnol, A., KRISTENSEN, R. M., NEVES, R. C., ROUSE, G. W., WORSAAE, K. and SØRENSEN, M. V. 2011. Higher-level metazoan relationships: recent progress and remaining questions. Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 11, 151–172.
  • Erwin, D. H. and Davidson, E. H. 2002. The last common bilaterian ancestor. Development, 129, 3021–3032.
  • Gabbott, S. E., Hou, X.-G., Norry, M. J. and Siveter, D. J. 2004. Preservation of Early Cambrian animals of the Chengjiang biota. Geology, 32, 901–904.
  • Gillis, J. A., Fritzenwanker, J. H. and Lowe, C. J. 2012. A stem-deuterostome origin of the vertebrate pharyngeal transcriptional network. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 279, 237–246.
  • GOULD, S. J. 1995. Of it, not above it. Nature, 377, 681–682.
  • Holland, N. D. and Chen, J.-Y. 2001. Origin and early evolution of the vertebrates: new insights from advances in molecular biology, anatomy, and palaeontology. BioEssays, 23, 142–151.
  • Hou, X.-G., Ramsköld, L. and Bergström, J. 1991. Composition and preservation of the Chengjiang fauna: a Lower Cambrian soft-bodied biota. Zoologica Scripta, 20, 395–411.
  • Hou, X.-G., Bergström, J., Wang, H.-F., Feng, X.-H. and Chen, A.-L. 1999. The Chengjiang fauna – exceptionally well-preserved animals from 530 million years ago. Yunnan Science and Technology Press, Kunming, viii + 170 pp. [In Chinese with English summary]
  • Hou, X.-G., Aldridge, R. J., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J. and Feng, X.-H. 2002. New evidence on the anatomy and phylogeny of the earliest vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 269, 1865–1869.
  • Hou, X.-G., Aldridge, R. J., Bergström, J., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J. and Feng, X.-H. 2004. The Cambrian fossils of Chengjiang, China – the flowering of early animal life. Blackwell Science, Oxford, xii + 233 pp.
  • Hou, X.-G., Cong, P.-Y. and Li, Y.-Z. 2009. On the taphonomy and phylogenetic relationships of yunnanozoans. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica, 48, 402–413. [In Chinese with English summary]
  • Luo, H.-L., Hu, S.-X. and Chen, L.-Z. 2001. New early Cambrian chordates from Haikou, Kunming. Acta Geologica Sinica, 75, 345–348.
  • Mallatt, J. and Chen, J.-Y. 2003. Fossil sister group of craniates: predicted and found. Journal of Morphology, 258, 1–31.
  • Mallatt, J., Chen, J.-Y. and Holland, N. D. 2003. Comment on ‘A new species of yunnanozoan with implications for deuterostome evolution’. Science, 300, 1372c.
  • Martindale, M. Q. and Hejnol, A. 2009. A developmental perspective: changes in the position of the blastopore during bilaterian evolution. Developmental Cell, 17, 162–174.
  • Ou, Q., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, J.-N., Chen, A.-L., Zhang, X.-L. and Shu, D.-G. 2012. Evidence for gill slits and a pharynx in Cambrian vetulicolians: implications for the early evolution of deuterostomes. BMC Biology, 10, 81.
  • Peel, A. D. 2004. The evolution of arthropod segmentation mechanisms. BioEssays, 26, 1108–1116.
  • Peel, A. D., Chipman, A. D. and Akam, M. 2005. Arthropod segmentation: beyond the Drosophila paradigm. Nature Reviews Genetics, 6, 905–916.
  • Pueyo, J. I., Lanfear, R. and Couso, J. P. 2008. Ancestral Notch-mediated segmentation revealed in the cockroach Periplaneta americana. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 16614–16619.
  • Rivera, A. and Weisblat, D. 2009. And Lophotrochozoa makes three: Notch/Hes signalling in annelid segmentation. Development Genes and Evolution, 219, 37–43.
  • Rychel, A. L., Smith, S. E., Shimamoto, H. T. and Swalla, B. J. 2006. Evolution and development of the chordates: collagen and pharyngeal cartilage. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 23, 541–549.
  • Sansom, R. S., Gabbott, S. E. and Purnell, M. A. 2010. Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation. Nature, 463, 797–800.
  • Sansom, R. S., Gabbott, S. E. and Purnell, M. A. 2011. Decay of vertebrate characters in hagfish and lamprey (Cyclostomata) and the implications for the vertebrate fossil record. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 278, 1150–1157.
  • Sansom, R. S., Gabbott, S. E. and Purnell, M. A. 2013. Atlas of vertebrate decay: a visual and taphonomic guide to fossil interpretation. Palaeontology, 563, 457–474.
  • Sarrazin, A. F., Peel, A. D. and Averof, M. 2012. A segmentation clock with two-segment periodicity in insects. Science, 336, 338–341.
  • Schmidt-Rhaesa, A. 2007. The evolution of organ systems. Oxford University Press, Oxford, x + 385 pp.
  • Schmidt-Rhaesa, A., Bartolomaeus, T., Lemburg, C., Ehlers, U. and Garey, J. R. 1998. The position of the Arthropoda in the phylogenetic system. Journal of Morphology, 238, 263–285.
  • Scotland, R. W. 2010. Deep homology: a view from systematics. BioEssays, 32, 438–449.
  • Shu, D.-G. 2003. A paleontological perspective of vertebrate origin. Chinese Science Bulletin, 48, 725–735.
  • Shu, D.-G. 2008. Cambrian explosion: birth of tree of animals. Gondwana Research, 14, 219–240.
  • Shu, D.-G. and Conway Morris, S. 2003. Response to Comment on ‘A new species of yunnanozoan with implications for deuterostome evolution’. Science, 300, 1372d.
  • Shu, D.-G., Zhang, X.-L. and Chen, L. 1996a. Reinterpretation of Yunnanozoon as the earliest known hemichordate. Nature, 380, 428–430.
  • Shu, D.-G., Zhang, X.-L., Chen, L. and Geyer, G. 1996b. Yunnanozoon – the ancestor of hemichordates. Journal of Northwest University (Natural Science Edition), 26, 73–74. [In Chinese with English abstract]
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S. and Zhang, X.-L. 1996c. A Pikaia-like chordate from the Lower Cambrian of China. Nature, 384, 157–158.
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Zhang, X.-L., Chen, L., Li, Y. and Han, J. 1999a. A pipiscid-like fossil from the Lower Cambrian of south China. Nature, 400, 746–749.
  • Shu, D.-G., Luo, H.-L., Conway Morris, S., Zhang, X.-L., Hu, S.-X., Chen, L., Han, J., Zhu, M., Li, Y. and Chen, L.-Z. 1999b. Lower Cambrian vertebrates from south China. Nature, 402, 42–46.
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Chen, L., Zhang, X.-L., Zhang, Z. F., Liu, H.-Q., Li, Y. and Liu, J.-N. 2001. Primitive deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagersttte (Lower Cambrian, China). Nature, 414, 419–424.
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, J.-N., Han, J., Chen, L., Zhang, X.-L., Yasui, K. and Li, Y. 2003. A new species of yunnanozoan with implications for deuterostome evolution. Science, 299, 1380–1384.
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Zhang, Z.-F. and Liu, J.-N. 2004. Ancestral echinoderms from the Chengjiang deposits of China. Nature, 430, 422–428.
  • Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Zhang, Z.-F. and Han, J. 2010. The earliest history of the deuterostomes: the importance of the Chengjiang Fossil-Lagersttte. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 277, 165–174.
  • Shubin, N., Tabin, C. and Carroll, S. 2009. Deep homology and the origins of evolutionary novelty. Nature, 457, 818–823.
  • Smith, A. B. 2005. The pre-radial history of echinoderms. Geological Journal, 40, 255–280.
  • Stollewerk, A., Schoppmeier, M. and Damen, W. G. M. 2003. Involvement of Notch and Delta genes in spider segmentation. Nature, 423, 863–865.
  • Swalla, B. J. and Smith, A. B. 2008. Deciphering deuterostome phylogeny: molecular, morphological and palaeontological perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 363, 1557–1568.
  • Wanninger, A., Kristof, A. and Brinkmann, N. 2009. Sipunculans and segmentation. Communicative & Integrative Biology, 2, 56–59.
  • Xiao, S.-H. and Laflamme, M. 2009. On the eve of animal radiation: phylogeny, ecology and evolution of the Ediacara biota. Trends in Ecology & Evolution., 24, 31–40.
  • Zhang, X.-G. and Hou, X.-G. 2004. Evidence for a single median fin-fold and tail in the Lower Cambrian vertebrate, Haikouichthys ercaicunensis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 17, 1162–1166.
  • Zhang, X.-G. and Hou, X.-G. 2007. Gravitational constraints on the burial of Chengjiang fossils. Palaios, 22, 448–453.
  • Zhu, M.-Y., Babcock, L. E. and Steiner, M. 2005. Fossilization modes in the Chengjiang Lagersttte (Cambrian of China): testing the roles of organic preservation and diagenetic alteration in exceptional preservation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 220, 31–46.
PalAss Go! URL: http://go.palass.org/5wa | Twitter: Share on Twitter | Facebook: Share on Facebook | Google+: Share on Google+