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Ediacara growing pains: modular addition and development in Dickinsonia costata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2021

Scott D. Evans Open the ORCID record for Scott D. Evans [Opens in a new window] ,
James G. Gehling ,
Douglas H. Erwin  and
Mary L. Droser
Scott D. Evans*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
James G. Gehling
Affiliation:
South Australia Museum, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Douglas H. Erwin
Affiliation:
Department of Paleobiology MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
Mary L. Droser
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Constraining patterns of growth using directly observable and quantifiable characteristics can reveal a wealth of information regarding the biology of the Ediacara biota—the oldest macroscopic, complex community-forming organisms in the fossil record. However, these rely on individuals captured at an instant in time at various growth stages, and so different interpretations can be derived from the same material. Here we leverage newly discovered and well-preserved Dickinsonia costata Sprigg, 1947 from South Australia, combined with hundreds of previously described specimens, to test competing hypotheses for the location of module addition. We find considerable variation in the relationship between the total number of modules and body size that cannot be explained solely by expansion and contraction of individuals. Patterns derived assuming new modules differentiated at the anterior result in numerous examples in which the oldest module(s) must decrease in size with overall growth, potentially falsifying this hypothesis. Observed polarity as well as the consistent posterior location of defects and indentations support module formation at this end in D. costata. Regardless, changes in repeated units with growth share similarities with those regulated by morphogen gradients in metazoans today, suggesting that these genetic pathways were operating in Ediacaran animals.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 83 - 98
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Paleontological Society

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References

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