Scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have discovered fossilized threads, some up to four long.
The team discovered entire networks of threads.They may have been used for food, communication or reproduction. A total of seven species of webs have been found at nearly 40 different fossil sites in Newfoundland, Canada.
By the end of the Ediacar period, between 571 and 541 millionyears ago, the first diverse communities of large and complex organisms began to appear: before that, almost all life on Earth was microscopic in size.
The fern-like reunomorphs were some ofthe most successful life forms in this period, they grew up to two meters in height and colonized large sections of the seabed. They were one of the first animals that ever existed on our planet, although their strange anatomy has puzzled paleontologists for years. These organisms did not have a mouth, organs or vehicles. One suggestion was that they absorb nutrients from the water around them.
“These organisms apparently were able to quicklycolonize the seafloor, and we often see one dominant species in these fossilized beds. How this was even possible, no one can understand, but these threads can explain this phenomenon.” .
Alex Liu from the Cambridge Geosciences Department and author of the paper
Because they could not move and lived in oneIn place, whole populations can be analyzed from fossil records. In earlier studies of random morphic forms, it was examined how these organisms could multiply and be so successful at one time.
Petrified threads? some up to four meters long? connect organisms known as Rangeomorphs, which dominated the Earth’s oceans half a billion years ago.
The length of most threads ranged from 2 to 40 cm,although some were up to four meters long. However, since they are so thin, filaments are visible only in places where fossil conservation is very good, which is one of the reasons they have not been identified before. Fossils for this study were found at five sites in eastern Newfoundland, one of the world's richest sources of Ediacar fossils. These threads have an incredible level of detail that can be preserved at these ancient depths of the sea; some of these filaments are only one tenth of a millimeter wide.
"We have always viewed these organisms asseparate individuals, but we have now discovered that these separate threads can be linked together by several separate members of the same species. We may now need to reconsider earlier studies of how these organisms interacted, and in particular how they competed for space and resources on the ocean floor. The most unexpected thing for me is the realization that they are connected. I've been studying them for over ten years, but this was a real surprise."
Alex Liu is from the Cambridge Geosciences Department and author of the paper.
It is possible that the filaments were used as a formclonal propagation, like modern strawberries, but because the organisms in the network were the same size, the filaments may have had different functions. For example, the threads may have provided resistance against strong ocean currents. Another theory is that they allowed organisms to exchange nutrients—a prehistoric version of the “arboreal web” seen in modern trees.