title: Decimetre-scale multicellular eukaryotes from the 1.56-billion-year-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation in North China.
abstract: Fossils of macroscopic eukaryotes are rarely older than the Ediacaran Period (635-541 million years (Myr)), and their interpretation remains controversial. Here, we report the discovery of macroscopic fossils from the 1,560-Myr-old Gaoyuzhuang Formation, Yanshan area, North China, that exhibit both large size and regular morphology. Preserved as carbonaceous compressions, the Gaoyuzhuang fossils have statistically regular linear to lanceolate shapes up to 30 cm long and nearly 8 cm wide, suggesting that the Gaoyuzhuang fossils record benthic multicellular eukaryotes of unprecedentedly large size. Syngenetic fragments showing closely packed ∼10 μm cells arranged in a thick sheet further reinforce the interpretation. Comparisons with living thalloid organisms suggest that these organisms were photosynthetic, although their phylogenetic placement within the Eukarya remains uncertain. The new fossils provide the strongest evidence yet that multicellular eukaryotes with decimetric dimensions and a regular developmental program populated the marine biosphere at least a billion years before the Cambrian Explosion.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey, Tianjin 300170, China.|State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Shixing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
authors.forename: Maoyan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Knoll
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
authors.forename: Zongjun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
authors.forename: Fangchen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey, Tianjin 300170, China.
authors.forename: Shufen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Centre for Geobiology, University of Bergen, Bergen 5007, Norway.
authors.forename: Yuangao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources, China Geological Survey, Tianjin 300170, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000166:cytology*; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013997:Time Factors