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Precambrian Sponges with Cellular Structures

1998; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 279; Issue: 5352 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.279.5352.879

1095-9203

Chia-Wei Li, Junyuan Chen, Tzu-En Hua,

Echinoderm biology and ecology

Sponge remains have been identified in the Early Vendian Doushantuo phosphate deposit in central Guizhou (South China), which has an age of ∼580 million years ago. Their skeletons consist of siliceous, monaxonal spicules. All are referred to as the Porifera, class Demospongiae. Preserved soft tissues include the epidermis, porocytes, amoebocytes, sclerocytes, and spongocoel. Among thousands of metazoan embryos is a parenchymella-type of sponge larvae having a shoe-shaped morphology and dense peripheral flagella. The presence of possible amphiblastula larva suggests that the calcareous sponges may have an extended history in the Late Precambrian. The fauna indicates that animals lived 40 to 50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion.