Organically-preserved multicellular eukaryote from the early Ediacaran Nyborg Formation, Arctic Norway.

Eukaryotic multicellularity originated in the Mesoproterozoic Era and evolved multiple times since, yet early multicellular fossils are scarce until the terminal Neoproterozoic and often restricted to cases of exceptional preservation. Here we describe unusual organically-preserved fossils from mudrocks, that provide support for the presence of organisms with differentiated cells (potentially an epithelial layer) in the late Neoproterozoic. Cyathinema digermulense gen. et sp. nov. from the Nyborg Formation, Vestertana Group, Digermulen Peninsula in Arctic Norway, is a new carbonaceous organ-taxon which consists of stacked tubes with cup-shaped ends. It represents parts of a larger organism (multicellular eukaryote or a colony), likely with greater preservation potential than its other elements. Arrangement of open-ended tubes invites comparison with cells of an epithelial layer present in a variety of eukaryotic clades. This tissue may have benefitted the organism in: avoiding overgrowth, limiting fouling, reproduction, or water filtration. C. digermulense shares characteristics with extant and fossil groups including red algae and their fossils, demosponge larvae and putative sponge fossils, colonial protists, and nematophytes. Regardless of its precise affinity, C. digermulense was a complex and likely benthic marine eukaryote exhibiting cellular differentiation, and a rare occurrence of early multicellularity outside of Konservat-Lagerstätten.

Traces of an ancient immune system - how an injured arthropod survived 465 million years ago.

This report of a severely injured trilobite from the Middle Ordovician (~465 Ma) accords with a number of similar observations of healed lesions observed in trilobites. The uniqueness of the specimen described here is that the character of the repair-mechanisms is reflected by the secondarily built structures, which form the new surface of the ruptured compound eye. Smooth, repaired areas inside the visual surface advert to a clotting principle, rather similar to those of today, and the way in which broken parts of the exoskeleton fused during restoration seem to simulate modern samples. The irregularity and variance of newly inserted visual units indicate the severity of the injury, which, most probably, was caused by a predatory attack, presumably by a cephalopod; these were most likely, the top predators of the Ordovician. Furthermore, the state of the moulted cephalon tells the dramatic struggle of an organism that lived in the Palaeozoic, to survive. In sum the specimen analysed here is evidence of an ancient clotting mechanism not dissimilar to those of today, rapidly preventing any exsanguination and the breakdown of osmoregulation of this marine arthropod.