Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-fnl2l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-12T18:53:27.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Palaeobiology of the reclining rangeomorph Beothukis from the Ediacaran Mistaken Point Formation of southeastern Newfoundland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Duncan McIlroy ,
Jessica Hawco ,
Christopher McKean ,
Robert Nicholls ,
Giovanni Pasinetti  and
Rod Taylor Open the ORCID record for Rod Taylor [Opens in a new window]
Duncan McIlroy*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Jessica Hawco
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Christopher McKean
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Robert Nicholls
Affiliation:
Palaeocreations, Kingswood, BristolBS15 9QQ, United Kingdom
Giovanni Pasinetti
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Rod Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Duncan McIlroy, Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Beothukis mistakensis from the Ediacaran System of Newfoundland, Canada demonstrates complex fractal-like morphology through the development of primary-, secondary- and tertiary-order Rangea-like units. The primary-order rangeomorph units observed in B. mistakensis are tightly juxtaposed, show no evidence of being independent of one another and are made up of chamber-like secondary-order – probably mesoglea-filled – units. The growth of these rangeomorph units demonstrates that the frond developed from the tip towards the basal region through ontogeny. The tertiary-order units of Beothukis are considered to represent surface morphology on the secondary-order units. This is in contrast to palaeobiological reconstructions of Beothukis that invoke three-dimensional fractal-like branches with independent units, which has been used to infer an osmotrophic mode of life. It is considered here that the fractal-like morphology of the lower surface of B. mistakensis was an adaptation to increase surface area to volume ratio. The quilted morphology of Beothukis proposed here is consistent with a sessile, reclining, phagocytotic and/or chemosymbiotic mode of life similar to that invoked for the reclining rangeomorph Fractofusus.

Keywords

PrecambrianpalaeontologyfossilAvalonia
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 159 , Special Issue 7: THEMATIC ISSUE: The Ediacaran System and the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition , July 2022 , pp. 1160 - 1174
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, MM and Misra, SB (1968) Fossils found in the Pre-Cambrian Conception Group of south-eastern Newfoundland. Nature 220, 680–81, doi: 10.1038/220680a0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antcliffe, JB and Brasier, MD (2008) Charnia at 50: developmental models for Ediacaran fronds. Palaeontology 51, 11–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, MD and Antcliffe, JB (2004) Decoding the Ediacaran Enigma. Science 305, 1115–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brasier, MD and Antcliffe, JB (2009) Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota: new insights from laser analysis. Journal of the Geological Society, London 166, 363–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, MD, Antcliffe, JB and Liu, AG (2012) The architecture of Ediacaran fronds. Palaeontology 55, 1105–1124, doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2012.01164.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasier, MD, Liu, AG, Menon, L, Matthews, JJ, McIlroy, D and Wacey, D (2013) Explaining the exceptional preservation of Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard’s Bay, Newfoundland: a hydraulic model. Precambrian Research 231, 122–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burzynski, G and Narbonne, GM (2015) The discs of Avalon: relating discoid fossils to frondose organisms in the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 434, 34–45, doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.01.014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buss, LW and Seilacher, A (1994) The phylum Vendobionta: a sister group to the Eumetazoa. Palaeobiology 20, 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, ME (2011) Ordination methods and the evaluation of Ediacaran communities. In Quantifying the Evolution of Early Life (eds Laflamme, M, Schiffbauer, JD and Dornbos, SQ), pp. 3–21. Netherlands: Springer, Topics in Geobiology no. 36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, ME, Narbonne, GM and Gehling, JG (2003) Paleoecology of the oldest known animal communities: Ediacaran assemblages at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. Paleobiology 29, 527–44.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darroch, SA, Laflamme, M and Clapham, ME (2013) Population structure of the oldest known macroscopic communities from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. Paleobiology 39, 591–608, doi: 10.1666/12051.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dececchi, TA, Narbonne, GM, Greentree, C and Laflamme, M (2018) Relating Ediacaran fronds. Palaeobiology 42, 171–80, doi: 10.1017/pab.2016.54.Google Scholar
Dornbos, SQ, Clapham, ME, Frasier, ML and Laflamme, M (2012) Lessons from the fossil record: the Ediacaran radiation, the Cambrian radiation, and the end-Permian. In Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Frameworks, Methodologies and Integration (eds Solan, M, Aspden, R and Paterson, D), pp. 52–72. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 254 p. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dufour, SC and McIlroy, D (2017) Ediacaran pre-placozoan diploblasts in the Avalonian biota: the role of chemosynthesis in the evolution of early animal life. In Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier (eds Brasier, AT, McIlroy, D and McLoughlin, N), pp. 211–21. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 448.Google Scholar
Dufour, SC and McIlroy, D (2018) An Ediacaran pre-placozoan alternative to the pre-sponge route towards the Cambrian explosion of animal life: a comment on Cavalier-Smith 2017. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B 373, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, FS, Wilby, PR, Kenchington, CG, Grazhdankin, DV, Donoghue, PCJ and Liu, AG (2018) Anatomy of the Ediacaran rangeomorph Charnia masoni . Papers in Palaeontology 5, 157–76, doi: 10.1002/spp2.1234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dzik, J (2002) Ctenophoran affinities of the Precambrian “sea-pen” Rangea . Morphology, 252, 315–334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dzulynski, S and Simpson, F (1966) Influence of bottom irregularities and transported tools upon experimental scour markings. Annales de la Societé Geologique de Pologne XXXVI, 286–96.Google Scholar
Dzulynski, S and Walton, EK (1963) Experimental production of sole markings. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 19, 279–305.Google Scholar
Gehling, JG and Narbonne, GM (2007) Spindle shaped Ediacara fossils from the Mistaken Point assemblage, Avalon Zone, Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 367–87, doi: 10.1139/e07-003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghisalberti, M, Gold, DA, Laflamme, M, Clapham, ME, Narbonne, GM, Summons, RE, Johnston, DT and Jacobs, DK (2014) Canopy flow analysis reveals the advantage of size in the oldest communities of multicellular eukaryotes. Current Biology 24, 305–9, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.12.017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glaessner, M (1979) Precambrian. In Treatise on Invertebrate Palaeontology. Part A. Introduction. Fossilization (Taphonomy) Biogeography and Biostratigraphy (eds Robinson, RA and Teichert, C), pp. A79–118. Lawrence, Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Glaessner, M (1984) The Dawn of Animal Life. A Biohistorical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 244 p.Google Scholar
Grazhdankin, DV and Seilacher, A (2005) A re-examination of the Nama-type Vendian organism Rangea schneiderhoehni . Geological Magazine 142, 571–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gürich, G (1930) Die bislang altesten spuren von organismen in Südafrika. In Proceedings of the International Geological Congress, Pretoria, South Africa, 1929, (XV)2, 670–80.Google Scholar
Hofmann, HJ, O’Brien, SJ and King, AF (2008) Ediacaran biota on the Bonavista Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada. Journal of Paleontology 82, 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyal Cuthill, JF and Conway Morris, S (2014) Fractal branching organizations of Ediacaran rangeomorph fronds reveal a lost Proterozoic body plan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 13122–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ichaso, AA, Dalrymple, RW and Narbonne, GM (2007) Paleoenvironmental and basin analysis of the late Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran) upper Conception and St. John’s groups, west Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 25–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, RJF (1985) The enigmatic Ediacaran (late Precambrian) genus Rangea and related forms. Paleobiology 11, 336–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, RJF (1992) Functional and ecological aspects of Ediacaran assemblages, In Origin and Early Evolution of the Metazoa (eds Lipps, JH and Signor, PW), pp. 131–76. New York, NY/London, UK: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, S, Högstrom, A, Almond, J, Taylor, WL, Meinhold, G, Høyberget, M, Ebbestad, JOR, Agic, H and Palacios, T (2018) Scratch circles from the Ediacaran and Cambrian of Arctic Norway and southern Africa, with a review of scratch circle occurrences. Bulletin of Geosciences 93, 287–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenchington, CG, Dunn, FS and Wilby, PR (2018) Modularity and overcompensatory growth in Ediacaran rangeomorphs demonstrate early adaptations for coping with environmental pressures. Current Biology 28, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenchington, CG and Wilby, PR (2014) Of time and taphonomy: preservation in the Ediacaran. In Reading and Writing the Fossil Record: Preservational Pathways to Exceptional Preservation (eds Laflamme, M, Schiffbauer, JD and Darroch, SAF), pp. 101–22. London: Palaeontological Society, Papers no. 20.Google Scholar
Kenchington, CG and Wilby, PR (2017) Rangeomorph classification schemes and intra-specific variation: are all characters created equal? In Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier (eds Brasier, AT, McIlroy, D and McLoughlin, N), pp. 221–50. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 448.Google Scholar
Laflamme, M, Darroch, SAF, Tweedt, SM, Peterson, KJ and Erwin, DH (2013) The end of the Ediacara biota: extinction, biotic replacement, or Cheshire Cat? Gondwana Research 23, 558–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laflamme, M, Flude, LI and Narbonne, GM (2012) Ecological tiering and the evolution of a stem: the oldest stemmed frond from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada. Journal of Paleontology 82, 193–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laflamme, M and Narbonne, GM (2008) Ediacaran fronds. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 258, 162–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laflamme, M, Narbonne, GM and Anderson, MM (2004) Morphometric analysis of the Ediacaran frond Charniodiscus from the Mistaken Point Formation, Newfoundland. Journal of Palaeontology 78, 827–37.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laflamme, M, Narbonne, GM, Greentree, C and Anderson, MM (2007) Morphology and taphonomy of an Ediacaran frond: Charnia from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. In The Rise and Fall of the Ediacaran Biota (eds Vickers-Rich, P and Komarower, P), pp. 237–57. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 286, doi.org/10.1144/SP286.17.Google Scholar
Laflamme, M, Xiao, S and Kowalewski, M (2009) Osmotrophy in modular Ediacara organisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 14438–43, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0904836106.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, AG (2016) Framboidal pyrite shroud confirms the “death mask” model for mouldic preservation of Ediacaran soft-bodied organisms. Palaios 31, 259–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, AG and Dunn, FS (2020) Filamentous connections between Ediacaran fronds. Current Biology 30, 1322–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, AG, Kenchington, CG and Mitchell, EG (2015) Remarkable insights into the paleoecology of the Avalonian Ediacaran macrobiota. Gondwana Research 27, 1355–80, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2014.11.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, AG, Matthews, JJ and McIlroy, D (2016) The Beothukis/Culmofrons problem and its bearing on Ediacaran macrofossil taxonomy: evidence from an exceptional new fossil locality. Palaeontology 59, 45–58, doi: 10.1111/pala.12206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, FA, Strauss, JV, Sperling, EA, Halverson, GP, Narbonne, GM, Johnston, DT, Petach, T, Schrag, DT and Higgins, JA (2013) The stratigraphic relationship between the Shuram carbon isotope excursion, the oxygenation of Neoproterozoic oceans, and the first appearance of the Ediacara biota and bilaterian trace fossils in northwestern Canada. Chemical Geology 362, 250–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, JJ, Liu, AG and McIlroy, D (2017) Post-fossilization processes and their implications for understanding Ediacaran macrofossil assemblages. In Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier (eds Brasier, AT, McIlroy, D and McLoughlin, N), pp. 251–69. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 448.Google Scholar
Matthews, JJ, Liu, AG, Yang, C, McIlroy, D, Levell, B and Condon, DJ (2020) A chronostratigraphic framework for the rise of the Ediacaran macrobiota: new constraints from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland. Geological Society of America Bulletin, published online 29 July 2020, https://doi.org/10.1130/B35646.1.Google Scholar
Matthews, JJ and McIlroy, D (2019) On the adhesion of sediment to footwear and the implications for geoconservation, Geoheritage 11, 1749–56, doi: 10.1007/s12371-019-00380-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Misra, SB (1969) Late Precambrian (?) fossils from southeastern Newfoundland. Geological Society of America Bulletin 80, 2133–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, EG and Butterfield, NJ (2018) Spatial analyses of Ediacaran communities at Mistaken Point. Paleobiology 44(1), 40–57, doi: 10.1017/pab.2017.35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, EG and Kenchington, CG (2018) The utility of height for Ediacaran organisms of Mistaken Point. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2, 1218–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, EG, Kenchington, CG, Harris, S and Wilby, P (2018) Revealing rangeomorph species characters using spatial analyses. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 55, 1262–70, doi: 10.1139/cjes-2018-0034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, EG, Kenchington, CG, Liu, AG, Matthews, JJ and Butterfield, NJ (2015) Reconstructing the reproductive mode of an Ediacaran macro-organism. Nature 524, 343–6, doi: 10.1038/nature14646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Narbonne, GM (2004) Modular construction in the Ediacaran biota. Science 305, 1141–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narbonne, GM (2005) The Ediacara biota: Neoproterozoic origin of animals and their ecosystems. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 33, 421–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narbonne, GM (2011) When life got big. Nature 470, 339–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Narbonne, GM and Gehling, JG (2003) Life after snowball: the oldest complex Ediacaran fossils. Geology 31, 27–30.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narbonne, GM, Laflamme, M, Greentree, C and Trusler, P (2009) Reconstructing a lost world: Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard’s Bay, Newfoundland. Journal of Paleontology 83, 503–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narbonne, GM, Laflamme, M, Trusler, P, Dalrymple, RW and Greentree, C (2014) Deep-water Ediacaran fossils from northwestern Canada: taphonomy, ecology and evolution. Journal of Paleontology 88, 207–23, doi: 10.1666/13-053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pflüg, HD (1970) Zur fauna der Nama-Schichten in Südwest-Afrika; II. Rangeidae, Bau und systematische Zugehörigkeit. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 135, 198–231.Google Scholar
Pflüg, HD (1972) Systematik der jung-präkambrischen Petalonamae. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 46, 56–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seilacher, A (1989) Vendozoa: organismic construction in the Proterozoic biosphere. Lethaia 22, 229–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seilacher, A (1992) Vendobionta and Psammocorallia - lost constructions of Precambrian evolution. Journal of the Geological Society 149, 607–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seilacher, A (1999) Biomat-related lifestyles in the Precambrian. Palaios 14, 86–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seilacher, A, Grazhdankin, D and Legouta, A (2003) Ediacaran biota: the dawn of animal life in the shadow of giant protists. Paleontological Research 7, 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sengupta, S (1966) Geological and geophysical studies in western part of Bengal Basin, India. AAPG Bulletin 50, 1001–18.Google Scholar
Sharp, AC, Wilson, AR and Vickers-Rich, P (2017) First non-destructive internal imaging of Rangea, an icon of complex Ediacaran life. Precambrian Research 299, 303–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vickers-Rich, P, Ivantsov, AY, Trusler, PW and Narbonne, GM (2013) Reconstructing Rangea: new discoveries from the Ediacaran of southern Namibia. Journal of Paleontology 87, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waggoner, B (2003) The Ediacaran biotas in space and time. Integrative and Comparative Biology 843, 104–13, doi: 10.1093/icb/43.1.104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, DA, Dalrymple, RW, Narbonne, GM, Gehling, JG and Clapham, ME (2003) Paleoenvironmental analysis of the late Neoproterozoic Mistaken Point and Trepassey formations, southeastern Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40, 1375–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J and Williams, M (2014) Ocean Worlds: The Story of Seas on Earth and Other Planets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 320 p.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

McIlroy et al. supplementary material

McIlroy et al. supplementary material

Download McIlroy et al. supplementary material(Image)
Image 1.8 MB