The rise and early evolution of animals: where do we stand from a trace-fossil perspective?

The origin of animal body plans: a view from fossil evidence and the regulatory genome

(2020) Douglas H. Erwin   DEVELOPMENT

Regional nutrient decrease drove redox stabilisation and metazoan diversification in the late Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia

(2020) F. T. Bowyer et al.   Scientific Reports

A Horodyskia-Nenoxites-dominated fossil assemblage from the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition (Liuchapo Formation, Hunan Province): Its paleontological implications and stratigraphic potential

(2020) Cui Luo et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Caught in the act: priapulid burrowers in early Cambrian substrates

(2019) Giannis Kesidis et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Trace fossils associated with Burgess Shale non-biomineralized carapaces: bringing taphonomic and ecological controls into focus

(2019) M. Gabriela Mángano et al.   Royal Society Open Science

Ediacaran biozones identified with network analysis provide evidence for pulsed extinctions of early complex life

(2019) A. D. Muscente et al.   Nature Communications

The Qingjiang biota—A Burgess Shale–type fossil Lagerstätte from the early Cambrian of South China

(2019) Dongjing Fu et al.   SCIENCE

A protracted Ediacaran–Cambrian transition: an ichnologic ecospace analysis of the Fortunian in Newfoundland, Canada

(2019) Brittany A. Laing et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Author Correction: Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion

(2019) Rachel Wood et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Slime travelers: Early evidence of animal mobility and feeding in an organic mat world

(2019) Scott D. Evans et al.   Geobiology

Surfing in and on microbial mats: Oxygen-related behavior of a terminal Ediacaran bilaterian animal

(2019) Shuhai Xiao et al.   GEOLOGY

Death march of a segmented and trilobate bilaterian elucidates early animal evolution

(2019) Zhe Chen et al.   NATURE

Increase in metazoan ecosystem engineering prior to the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary in the Nama Group, Namibia

(2019) Alison T. Cribb et al.   Royal Society Open Science

A New Burgess Shale Polychaete and the Origin of the Annelid Head Revisited

(2018) Karma Nanglu et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

The early Paleozoic development of bioturbation—Evolutionary and geobiological consequences

(2018) Lidya G. Tarhan   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

Environmental disturbance, resource availability, and biologic turnover at the dawn of animal life

(2018) A.D. Muscente et al.   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

Bioturbation and directionality in Earth's carbon isotope record across the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition

(2018) R. A. Boyle et al.   Geobiology

Evidence of sensory-driven behavior in the Ediacaran organism Parvancorina : Implications and autecological interpretations

(2018) Felicity J. Coutts et al.   GONDWANA RESEARCH

Ichnology and depositional environments of the Upper Ordovician Stony Mountain Formation in the Williston Basin, Canada: Refining ichnofacies and ichnofabric models for Epeiric Sea carbonates

(2018) Charlie Y.C. Zheng et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Gyrolithes from the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary section in Fortune Head, Newfoundland, Canada: Exploring the onset of complex burrowing

(2018) Brittany A. Laing et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Early fossil record of Euarthropoda and the Cambrian Explosion

(2018) Allison C. Daley et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Ediacaran Extinction and Cambrian Explosion

(2018) Simon A.F. Darroch et al.   TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION

Early Palaeozoic ocean anoxia and global warming driven by the evolution of shallow burrowing

(2018) Sebastiaan van de Velde et al.   Nature Communications

Early Cambrian origin of the shelf sediment mixed layer

(2018) Romain C. Gougeon et al.   Nature Communications

Diverse Assemblage of Ediacaran fossils from Central Iran

(2018) Seyed Hamid Vaziri et al.   Scientific Reports

Sediment disturbance by Ediacaran bulldozers and the roots of the Cambrian explosion

(2018) Luis A. Buatois et al.   Scientific Reports

Late Ediacaran trackways produced by bilaterian animals with paired appendages

(2018) Zhe Chen et al.   Science Advances

Effects of bioturbation on carbon and sulfur cycling across the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition at the GSSP in Newfoundland, Canada

(2018) Kalev G. Hantsoo et al.   CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES

Big bedding planes: Outcrop size and spatial heterogeneity influence trace fossil analyses

(2018) Katherine N. Marenco et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

New suspension-feeding radiodont suggests evolution of microplanktivory in Cambrian macronekton

(2018) Rudy Lerosey-Aubril et al.   Nature Communications

High ecological complexity in benthic Ediacaran communities

(2018) Simon A. F. Darroch et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

New high-resolution age data from the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary indicate rapid, ecologically driven onset of the Cambrian explosion

(2018) Ulf Linnemann et al.   TERRA NOVA

Oxygen, animals and aquatic bioturbation: An updated account

(2017) N. J. Butterfield   Geobiology

Treptichnus pedum and the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary: significance and caveats

(2017) LUIS A. BUATOIS   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

New material of scalidophoran worms in Orsten-type preservation from the Cambrian Fortunian Stage of South China

(2017) Huaqiao Zhang et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Ichnostratigraphy of the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary: new insights on lower Cambrian biozonations from the Soltanieh Formation of northern Iran

(2017) Setareh Shahkarami et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Ichnologic evidence of a Cambrian age in the southern Amazon Craton: Implications for the onset of the Western Gondwana history

(2017) Hudson P. Santos et al.   JOURNAL OF SOUTH AMERICAN EARTH SCIENCES

Discriminating ecological and evolutionary controls during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition: Trace fossils from the Soltanieh Formation of northern Iran

(2017) Setareh Shahkarami et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

A new scyphozoan from the Cambrian Fortunian Stage of South China

(2017) Yunhuan Liu et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

A cosmopolitan late Ediacaran biotic assemblage: new fossils from Nevada and Namibia support a global biostratigraphic link

(2017) E. F. Smith et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Early bursts of diversification defined the faunal colonization of land

(2017) Nicholas J. Minter et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Ichnological evidence for meiofaunal bilaterians from the terminal Ediacaran and earliest Cambrian of Brazil

(2017) Luke A. Parry et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

Rheotaxis in the Ediacaran epibenthic organism Parvancorina from South Australia

(2017) John R. Paterson et al.   Scientific Reports

The impact of deep-tier burrow systems in sediment mixing and ecosystem engineering in early Cambrian carbonate settings

(2017) Li-Jun Zhang et al.   Scientific Reports

Sedimentology and ichnology of an Early-Middle Cambrian storm-influenced barred shoreface succession, Colville Hills, Northwest Territories

(2016) D.S. Herbers et al.  

Rosselia socialisfrom the Ordovician of Asturias (Northern Spain) and the Early Evolution of Equilibrium Behavior in Polychaetes

(2016) Luis A. Buatois et al.   ICHNOS-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PLANT AND ANIMAL TRACES

Microbial Origin of Early Animal Trace Fossils?

(2016) Giulio Mariotti et al.   JOURNAL OF SEDIMENTARY RESEARCH

The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte: silica death masking opens the window on the earliest matground community of the Cambrian explosion

(2016) Katie M. Strang et al.   LETHAIA

A mixed Ediacaran-metazoan assemblage from the Zaris Sub-basin, Namibia

(2016) Simon A.F. Darroch et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

A cryptic record of Burgess Shale-type diversity from the early Cambrian of Baltica

(2016) Ben J. Slater et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Transitional Ediacaran–Cambrian small skeletal fossil assemblages from South China and Kazakhstan: Implications for chronostratigraphy and metazoan evolution

(2016) Ben Yang et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Decoupled evolution of soft and hard substrate communities during the Cambrian Explosion and Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

(2016) Luis A. Buatois et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Low-oxygen waters limited habitable space for early animals

(2016) R. Tostevin et al.   Nature Communications

The origin of the animals and a ‘Savannah’ hypothesis for early bilaterian evolution

(2015) Graham E. Budd et al.   BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS

A link in the chain of the Cambrian zooplankton: bradoriid arthropods invade the water column

(2015) MARK WILLIAMS et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Statistical analysis of iron geochemical data suggests limited late Proterozoic oxygenation

(2015) Erik A. Sperling et al.   NATURE

Molecular clocks and the early evolution of metazoan nervous systems

(2015) G. A. Wray   PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Ecological innovations in the Cambrian and the origins of the crown group phyla

(2015) Graham E. Budd et al.   PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Revised Neoproterozoic and Terreneuvian stratigraphy of the Lena-Anabar Basin and north-western slope of the Olenek Uplift, Siberian Platform

(2015) Konstantin E. Nagovitsin et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

The advent of animals: The view from the Ediacaran

(2015) Mary L. Droser et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Biotic replacement and mass extinction of the Ediacara biota

(2015) Simon A. F. Darroch et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Micro-trace fossils reveal pervasive reworking of Pliocene sapropels by low-oxygen-adapted benthic meiofauna

(2015) S.C. Löhr et al.   Nature Communications

Rise to modern levels of ocean oxygenation coincided with the Cambrian radiation of animals

(2015) Xi Chen et al.   Nature Communications

Oxygen and animal evolution: Did a rise of atmospheric oxygen “trigger” the origin of animals?

(2014) Daniel B. Mills et al.   BIOESSAYS

Extensive metazoan reefs from the Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia: the rise of benthic suspension feeding

(2014) R. Wood et al.   Geobiology

Patterns of Evolution of the Ediacaran Soft-Bodied Biota

(2014) Dmitriy Grazhdankin   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Trace Fossils with Spreiten from the Late Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia: Complex Feeding Patterns Five Million Years Before the Precambrian–Cambrian Boundary

(2014) Francis A. Macdonald et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

When Life Got Smart: The Evolution of Behavioral Complexity Through the Ediacaran and Early Cambrian of NW Canada

(2014) Calla Carbone et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Scratch Traces of Large Ediacara Bilaterian Animals

(2014) James G. Gehling et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Co-evolution of eukaryotes and ocean oxygenation in the Neoproterozoic era

(2014) Timothy M. Lenton et al.   Nature Geoscience

Stabilization of the coupled oxygen and phosphorus cycles by the evolution of bioturbation

(2014) R. A. Boyle et al.   Nature Geoscience

Widespread delayed mixing in early to middle Cambrian marine shelfal settings

(2014) Lidya G. Tarhan et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

The origins of molluscs

(2014) Jakob Vinther   PALAEONTOLOGY

The origin of annelids

(2014) Luke Parry et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Oxygen requirements of the earliest animals

(2014) D. B. Mills et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Decoupling of body-plan diversification and ecological structuring during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: evolutionary and geobiological feedbacks

(2014) M. G. Mangano et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Ediacaran metazoan reefs from the Nama Group, Namibia

(2014) A. M. Penny et al.   SCIENCE

Ichnodiversity and ichnoabundance: Revealing depositional trends in a confined turbidite system

(2014) Dirk Knaust et al.   SEDIMENTOLOGY

Ediacaran matground ecology persisted into the earliest Cambrian

(2014) Luis A. Buatois et al.   Nature Communications

A paleobiologic perspective on plant–insect interactions

(2013) Conrad C Labandeira   CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY

Evidence for Cnidaria-like behavior in ca. 560 Ma Ediacaran Aspidella

(2013) Latha R. Menon et al.   GEOLOGY

Environmental tolerance and range offset of Treptichnus pedum: Implications for the recognition of the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary

(2013) Luis A. Buatois et al.   GEOLOGY

The oldest evidence of bioturbation on Earth: COMMENT

(2013) Martin D. Brasier et al.   GEOLOGY

The Tommotian phase of the Early Cambrian Agronomic Revolution in the carbonate mud environment of central Siberia

(2013) Dawid Mazurek   LETHAIA

Ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity: significance and caveats

(2013) Luis A. Buatois et al.   LETHAIA

Traces of marine nematodes from 470 million years old Early Ordovician rocks in China

(2013) Andrzej Baliński et al.   NEMATOLOGY

Interactions between Ediacaran animals and microbial mats: Insights from Lamonte trevallis, a new trace fossil from the Dengying Formation of South China

(2013) Mike Meyer et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Comment on “Trace fossil evidence for Ediacaran bilaterian animals with complex behaviors” by Chen et al. [Precambrian Res. 224 (2013) 690–701]

(2013) Gregory J. Retallack   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Oxygen, ecology, and the Cambrian radiation of animals

(2013) E. A. Sperling et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Comment on "Bilaterian Burrows and Grazing Behavior at >585 Million Years Ago"

(2013) C. Gaucher et al.   SCIENCE

Trace fossils of precambrian metazoans “Vendobionta” and “Mollusks”

(2013) A. Yu. Ivantsov   STRATIGRAPHY AND GEOLOGICAL CORRELATION

The Continuing Debate on Deep Molluscan Phylogeny: Evidence for Serialia (Mollusca, Monoplacophora + Polyplacophora)

(2013) I. Stöger et al.   Biomed Research International

The oldest evidence of bioturbation on Earth

(2012) Vladimir Rogov et al.   GEOLOGY

Nonbiomineralized carapaces in Cambrian seafloor landscapes (Sirius Passet, Greenland): Opening a new window into early Phanerozoic benthic ecology

(2012) M. Gabriela Mángano et al.   GEOLOGY

The end of the Ediacara biota: Extinction, biotic replacement, or Cheshire Cat?

(2012) Marc Laflamme et al.   GONDWANA RESEARCH

Gut Contents as Direct Indicators for Trophic Relationships in the Cambrian Marine Ecosystem

(2012) Jean Vannier   PLoS One

Tube construction and life mode of the late Ediacaran tubular fossil Gaojiashania cyclus from the Gaojiashan Lagerstätte

(2012) Yaoping Cai et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Trace fossil evidence for Ediacaran bilaterian animals with complex behaviors

(2012) Zhe Chen et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Bilaterian Burrows and Grazing Behavior at >585 Million Years Ago

(2012) E. Pecoits et al.   SCIENCE

An Early Cambrian stem polychaete with pygidial cirri

(2011) J. Vinther et al.   Biology Letters

Ecological drivers of the Ediacaran-Cambrian diversification of Metazoa

(2011) Douglas H. Erwin et al.   EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY

Temperate bioerosion: ichnodiversity and biodiversity from intertidal to bathyal depths (Azores)

(2011) M. WISSHAK et al.   Geobiology

Chronology of early Cambrian biomineralization

(2011) ARTEM KOUCHINSKY et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Novelties That Change Carrying Capacity

(2011) Douglas H. Erwin   JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY PART B-MOLECULAR AND DEVELOPMENTAL EVOLUTION

Problematica, trace fossils, and tubes within the Ediacara Member (South Australia): redefining the ediacaran trace fossil record one tube at a time

(2011) Aaron Sappenfield et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

An early Cambrian shallow-marine ichnofauna from the Puncoviscana Formation of northwest Argentina: the interplay between sophisticated feeding behaviors, matgrounds and sea-level changes

(2011) Luis A. Buatois et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Feeding traces of proarticulata—the Vendian metazoa

(2011) A. Yu. Ivantsov   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Morphology and paleoecology of the late Ediacaran tubular fossil Conotubus hemiannulatus from the Gaojiashan Lagerstätte of southern Shaanxi Province, South China

(2011) Yaoping Cai et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Skimming the surface with Burgess Shale arthropod locomotion

(2011) N. J. Minter et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

The Cambrian Conundrum: Early Divergence and Later Ecological Success in the Early History of Animals

(2011) D. H. Erwin et al.   SCIENCE

Sedimentological and ichnological signatures of changes in wave, river and tidal influence along a Neogene tropical deltaic shoreline

(2011) LUIS A. BUATOIS et al.   SEDIMENTOLOGY

A placozoan affinity for Dickinsonia and the evolution of late Proterozoic metazoan feeding modes

(2010) Erik A. Sperling et al.   EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT

First evidence for locomotion in the Ediacara biota from the 565 Ma Mistaken Point Formation, Newfoundland

(2010) Alexander G. Liu et al.   GEOLOGY

Priapulid worms: Pioneer horizontal burrowers at the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary

(2010) Jean Vannier et al.   GEOLOGY

Skolithos pipe rock and associated ichnofabrics from the southern Rocky Mountains, Canada: colonization trends and environmental controls in an early Cambrian sand-sheet complex

(2010) PATRICIO R. DESJARDINS et al.   LETHAIA

Habitat heterogeneity and its influence on benthic biodiversity in oxygen minimum zones

(2010) Andrew J. Gooday et al.   Marine Ecology-An Evolutionary Perspective

Early Cambrian Teichichnus-dominated ichnofabrics and palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Caerfai Group, Southwest Wales, UK

(2010) Nicholas J.D. Loughlin et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Bioturbation in Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten — Case study of trace fossil–body fossil association from the Kaili Biota (Cambrian Series 3), Guizhou, China

(2010) Jih-Pai Lin et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

THE INTERSECTION GRID TECHNIQUE FOR QUANTIFYING THE EXTENT OF BIOTURBATION ON BEDDING PLANES

(2010) K. N. MARENCO et al.   PALAIOS

Information landscapes and sensory ecology of the Cambrian Radiation

(2010) Roy E. Plotnick et al.   PALEOBIOLOGY

Animals and the invention of the Phanerozoic Earth system

(2010) Nicholas J. Butterfield   TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION

Oxygen, animals and oceanic ventilation: an alternative view

(2009) N. J. BUTTERFIELD   Geobiology

Smothering of microbial mats by macrobiota: implications for the Ediacara biota

(2009) DUNCAN McILROY et al.   JOURNAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Palaeoecology of the trace fossil Gordia and its interaction with nonmineralizing taxa from the early Middle Cambrian Kaili Biota, Guizhou province, South China

(2009) Yue Wang et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

New reconstruction of Kimberella, problematic Vendian metazoan

(2009) A. Yu. Ivantsov   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Osmotrophy in modular Ediacara organisms

(2009) M. Laflamme et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

MicroRNAs resolve an apparent conflict between annelid systematics and their fossil record

(2009) E. A. Sperling et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Giant Deep-Sea Protist Produces Bilaterian-like Traces

(2008) Mikhail V. Matz et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

Controls on trace fossil diversity in an Early Cambrian epeiric sea: new perspectives from northwest Scotland

(2008) NEIL S. DAVIES et al.   LETHAIA

On the eve of animal radiation: phylogeny, ecology and evolution of the Ediacara biota

(2008) Shuhai Xiao et al.   TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION

Compilation and Network Analyses of Cambrian Food Webs

(2008) Jennifer A Dunne et al.   PLOS BIOLOGY