Animal origins: The record from organic microfossils

The origin and early evolution of arthropods

(2022) Cédric Aria   BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS

Global record of “ghost” nannofossils reveals plankton resilience to high CO 2 and warming

(2022) Sam M. Slater et al.   SCIENCE

New multicellular marine macroalgae from the early Tonian of northwestern Canada

(2021) Katie M. Maloney et al.   GEOLOGY

Organic tentaculitoids from the Kowala Formation (Devonian) of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland

(2021) Marcelina Kondas et al.   PALYNOLOGY

Late Ediacaran organic microfossils from Finland

(2021) Sebastian Willman et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Possible poriferan body fossils in early Neoproterozoic microbial reefs

(2021) Elizabeth C. Turner   NATURE

The ‘biomineralization toolkit’ and the origin of animal skeletons

(2020) Duncan J. E. Murdock   BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS

Cochleatina : an enigmatic Ediacaran–Cambrian survivor among small carbonaceous fossils (SCF s )

(2020) Ben J. Slater et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

A Chronostratigraphic Framework for the Rise of the Ediacaran Macrobiota: New Constraints from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland

(2020) Jack J. Matthews et al.   GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA BULLETIN

Organic-walled microfossils in the Ediacaran of Estonia: Biodiversity on the East European Platform

(2020) Emma H.M. Arvestål et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Seaweeds through time: Morphological and ecological analysis of Proterozoic and early Paleozoic benthic macroalgae

(2020) Natalia Bykova et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Fossilization potential of marine assemblages and environments

(2020) Jack O. Shaw et al.   GEOLOGY

Structural, chemical and isotope evidence for secondary phosphate mineralization of grasping spines of Early Palaeozoic chaetognaths

(2020) Hubert Wierzbowski et al.   LETHAIA

Systematics of pterobranchs from the Cambrian Period Burgess Shales of Canada and the early evolution of graptolites

(2020) G.M. Ramírez-Guerrero et al.   BULLETIN OF GEOSCIENCES

Total organic carbon and the preservation of organic-walled microfossils in Precambrian shale

(2020) C.R. Woltz et al.   GEOLOGY

Small carbonaceous fossils ( SCF s) from North Greenland: new light on metazoan diversity in early Cambrian shelf environments

(2020) Elise Wallet et al.   Papers in Palaeontology

Algal origin of sponge sterane biomarkers negates the oldest evidence for animals in the rock record

(2020) Ilya Bobrovskiy et al.   Nature Ecology & Evolution

A New Spiralian Phylogeny Places the Enigmatic Arrow Worms among Gnathiferans

(2019) Ferdinand Marlétaz et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

Caught in the act: priapulid burrowers in early Cambrian substrates

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

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

(2019) Dongjing Fu et al.   SCIENCE

Trilobite evolutionary rates constrain the duration of the Cambrian explosion

(2019) John R. Paterson et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Early Cambrian small carbonaceous fossils ( SCF s) from an impact crater in western Finland

(2019) Ben J. Slater et al.   LETHAIA

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

(2019) Scott D. Evans et al.   Geobiology

The trouble with trilobites: classification, phylogeny and the cryptogenesis problem

(2019) John R. Paterson   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Organic-walled microfossils from the Tonian Tongjiazhuang Formation of the Tumen Group in western Shandong, North China Craton and their biostratigraphic significance

(2019) Guangjin Li et al.   GONDWANA RESEARCH

A New Cloudinid Fossil Assemblage from the Terminal Ediacaran of Nevada, USA

(2019) Tara Selly et al.   JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY

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

(2019) Zhe Chen et al.   NATURE

Are hyoliths Palaeozoic lophophorates?

(2019) Fan Liu et al.   National Science Review

Evolutionary synchrony of Earth’s biosphere and sedimentary-stratigraphic record

(2019) Neil S. Davies et al.   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

Redkinian Biota of Macroscopic Fossils from the Northwestern East European Platform (South Ladoga Region)

(2018) E. Yu. Golubkova et al.   DOKLADY EARTH SCIENCES

The Paleoproterozoic fossil record: Implications for the evolution of the biosphere during Earth's middle-age

(2018) Emmanuelle J. Javaux et al.   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

The temporal and environmental context of early animal evolution: considering all the ingredients of an ‘explosion’

(2018) Erik A Sperling et al.   INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY

Thermal maturity assessment study of the late Pliensbachian-early Toarcian organic-rich sediments in southern France: Grands Causses, Quercy and Pyrenean basins

(2018) Carolina Fonseca et al.   MARINE AND PETROLEUM GEOLOGY

Small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) from the Terreneuvian (lower Cambrian) of Baltica

(2018) Ben J. Slater et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

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

Early sponge evolution: A review and phylogenetic framework

(2018) Joseph P. Botting et al.   Palaeoworld

Tracing the evolutionary origins of the Hemichordata (Enteropneusta and Pterobranchia)

(2018) Jörg Maletz   Palaeoworld

New Vendian Saarinid Microorganisms from the Siberian Platform

(2018) P. N. Kolosov et al.   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

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

Ediacaran and Cambrian stratigraphy in Estonia: an updated review

(2017) T Meidla   Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences

Organic-walled microfossils from the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary stratotype section, Chapel Island and Random formations, Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada: Global correlation and significance for the evolution of early complex ecosystems

(2017) Teodoro Palacios et al.   GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Widespread preservation of small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs) in the early Cambrian of North Greenland

(2017) Ben J. Slater et al.   GEOLOGY

Sediment cycling on continental and oceanic crust

(2017) Shanan E. Peters et al.   GEOLOGY

Malongitubus: a possible pterobranch hemichordate from the early Cambrian of South China

(2017) Shixue Hu et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Hyoliths are Palaeozoic lophophorates

(2017) Joseph Moysiuk et al.   NATURE

Sponge spicules from the lower Cambrian in the Yanjiahe Formation, South China: The earliest biomineralizing sponge record

(2017) Shan Chang et al.   PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY

Brachiopods: origin and early history

(2017) David A. T. Harper et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Multi-jawed chaetognaths from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Cambrian, Series 2, Stage 3) of Yunnan, China

(2017) Degan Shu et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Late Mesoproterozoic - early Neoproterozoic organic-walled microfossils from the Madhubani Group of the Ganga Valley, northern India

(2017) Qing Tang et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Exceptionally preserved Cambrian loriciferans and the early animal invasion of the meiobenthos

(2017) Thomas H. P. Harvey 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

Dating early animal evolution using phylogenomic data

(2017) Martin Dohrmann et al.   Scientific Reports

The origin of animals: Can molecular clocks and the fossil record be reconciled?

(2016) John A. Cunningham et al.   BIOESSAYS

Fossil calibrations for the arthropod Tree of Life

(2016) Joanna M. Wolfe et al.   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) worms of southern Sweden

(2016) Mats E. Eriksson et al.   GFF

Micropaleontology of the lower Mesoproterozoic Roper Group, Australia, and implications for early eukaryotic evolution

(2016) Emmanuelle J. Javaux et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

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

(2016) Ben J. Slater et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

MACROSCOPIC STRUCTURES IN THE 1.1 Ga CONTINENTAL COPPER HARBOR FORMATION: CONCRETIONS OR FOSSILS?

(2016) ROSS P. ANDERSON et al.   PALAIOS

A diverse and exquisitely preserved organic-walled microfossil assemblage from the Meso–Neoproterozoic Mbuji-Mayi Supergroup (Democratic Republic of Congo) and implications for Proterozoic biostratigraphy

(2016) B.K. Baludikay et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

New material of the oldest known scalidophoran animal Eopriapulites sphinx

(2016) Tie-Quan Shao et al.   Palaeoworld

Preservation and phylogeny of Cambrian ecdysozoans tested by experimental decay of Priapulus

(2016) Robert S. Sansom   Scientific Reports

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

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

Fossilized spermatozoa preserved in a 50-Myr-old annelid cocoon from Antarctica

(2015) Benjamin Bomfleur et al.   Biology Letters

Spiralian Phylogeny Informs the Evolution of Microscopic Lineages

(2015) Christopher E. Laumer et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

Uncertainty in the Timing of Origin of Animals and the Limits of Precision in Molecular Timescales

(2015) Mario dos Reis et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

Early evolution of large micro-organisms with cytological complexity revealed by microanalyses of 3.4 Ga organic-walled microfossils

(2015) K. Sugitani et al.   Geobiology

Ecdysozoan-like sclerites among Ediacaran microfossils

(2015) MAŁGORZATA MOCZYDŁOWSKA et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Sustained Mesozoic–Cenozoic diversification of marine Metazoa: A consistent signal from the fossil record

(2015) Andrew M. Bush et al.   GEOLOGY

The survival of benthic macroscopic phototrophs on a Neoproterozoic snowball Earth

(2015) Qin Ye et al.   GEOLOGY

Sclerites and possible mouthparts ofWiwaxiafrom the temperate palaeolatitudes of Colombia, South America

(2015) Martin R. Smith et al.   LETHAIA

The macro- and microfossil record of the Cambrian priapulidOttoia

(2015) Martin R. Smith et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Proterozoic photosynthesis - a critical review

(2015) Nicholas J. Butterfield   PALAEONTOLOGY

Graptolite (Hemichordata, Pterobranchia) preservation and identification in the Cambrian Series 3

(2015) Jörg Maletz et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

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

Armored kinorhynch-like scalidophoran animals from the early Cambrian

(2015) Huaqiao Zhang et al.   Scientific Reports

Interpreting ‘shelly’ fossils preserved as organic films: the case of hyolithids

(2014) Mónica Martí Mus   LETHAIA

Hallucigenia’s onychophoran-like claws and the case for Tactopoda

(2014) Martin R. Smith et al.   NATURE

Origins and early evolution of arthropods

(2014) Gregory D. Edgecombe et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Chancelloriid sclerites from the Lower Cambrian (Meishucunian) of eastern Yunnan, China, and the early history of the group

(2014) John L. Moore et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

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

An early Cambrian agglutinated tubular lophophorate with brachiopod characters

(2014) Z.-F. Zhang et al.   Scientific Reports

At the Origin of Animals: The Revolutionary Cambrian Fossil Record

(2013) Graham Budd   CURRENT GENOMICS

Middle Cambrian (Upper Series 3) protoconodonts and paraconodonts from the Machari Formation at Eodungol Section, Yeongwol, Korea

(2013) Byung-Su Lee   Journal of Earth Science

The origin of conodonts and of vertebrate mineralized skeletons

(2013) Duncan J. E. Murdock et al.   NATURE

Ontogeny, morphology and taxonomy of the soft-bodied Cambrian ‘mollusc’Wiwaxia

(2013) Martin R. Smith   PALAEONTOLOGY

COPEPOD MANDIBLE PALYNOMORPHS FROM THE NOLICHUCKY SHALE (CAMBRIAN, TENNESSEE): IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TAPHONOMY AND RECOVERY OF SMALL CARBONACEOUS FOSSILS

(2013) T. H. P. HARVEY et al.   PALAIOS

Organic-walled microfossils from the early Neoproterozoic Liulaobei Formation in the Huainan region of North China and their biostratigraphic significance

(2013) Qing Tang et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

Beyond the Burgess Shale: Cambrian microfossils track the rise and fall of hallucigeniid lobopodians

(2013) J.-B. Caron et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Palynology and Microfacies of Lower Devonian Mixed Carbonate-Siliciclastic Deposits in Podolia, Ukraine

(2012) Paweł Filipiak et al.   ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA

A merciful death for the “earliest bilaterian,” Vernanimalcula

(2012) Stefan Bengtson et al.   EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT

The disparity of priapulid, archaeopriapulid and palaeoscolecid worms in the light of new data

(2012) M. A. Wills et al.   JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Completeness of the fossil record and the validity of sampling proxies at outcrop level

(2012) ALEXANDER M. DUNHILL et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Records of a new spongelike group in the Riphean biota

(2012) T. N. German et al.   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Triassic leech cocoon from Antarctica contains fossil bell animal

(2012) B. Bomfleur et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Exceptionally preserved crustaceans from western Canada reveal a cryptic Cambrian radiation

(2012) T. H. P. Harvey et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Cambrian section in the east of the West Siberian geosyneclise (based on data from Vostok 4 well)

(2012) A.E. Kontorovich et al.   Russian Geology and Geophysics

Burgess Shale-Type Microfossils from the Middle Cambrian Kaili Formation, Guizhou Province, China

(2011) Thomas H.P. Harvey et al.   ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA

Evolutionary Origins of Animal Skeletal Biomineralization

(2011) Duncan J.E. Murdock et al.   CELLS TISSUES ORGANS

Paleoecology of the earliest skeletal metazoan communities: Implications for early biomineralization

(2011) Rachel A. Wood   EARTH-SCIENCE REVIEWS

Chronology of early Cambrian biomineralization

(2011) ARTEM KOUCHINSKY et al.   GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE

Small carbonaceous fossils (SCFs): A new measure of early Paleozoic paleobiology

(2011) N.J. Butterfield et al.   GEOLOGY

Embryonic Development of a Middle Cambrian (500 Myr Old) Scalidophoran Worm

(2011) Xi-Guang Zhang et al.   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

First record of a bivalved larval shell in Early Cambrian tommotiids and its phylogenetic significance

(2011) LARS E. HOLMER et al.   PALAEONTOLOGY

Ediacaran radiation of organic-walled microbiota recorded in the Ura Formation, Patom Uplift, East Siberia

(2011) Małgorzata Moczydłowska et al.   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

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

(2011) D. H. Erwin et al.   SCIENCE

Organic Remains of Tentaculitids: New Evidence from Upper Devonian of Poland

(2010) Paweł Filipiak et al.   ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA

Insect and clitellate annelid traces in mesofossil assemblages from the Cretaceous of Australasia

(2010) Anne-Marie P. Tosolini et al.   ALCHERINGA

Carbonaceous preservation of Cambrian hexactinellid sponge spicules

(2010) T. H. P. Harvey   Biology Letters

Are palaeoscolecids ancestral ecdysozoans?

(2010) Thomas H. P. Harvey et al.   EVOLUTION & DEVELOPMENT

The earliest Cambrian record of animals and ocean geochemical change

(2010) A. C. Maloof et al.   GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA BULLETIN

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

(2010) Alexander G. Liu et al.   GEOLOGY

The oldest bivalved arthropods from the early Cambrian of East Gondwana: Systematics, biostratigraphy and biogeography

(2010) Timothy P. Topper et al.   GONDWANA RESEARCH

A corset-like fossil from the Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of North Greenland and its implications for cycloneuralian evolution

(2010) John S. Peel   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Organic-walled microfossils in 3.2-billion-year-old shallow-marine siliciclastic deposits

(2010) Emmanuelle J. Javaux et al.   NATURE

Xiphograptusand the evolution of virgella-bearing graptoloids

(2010) JÖRG MALETZ   PALAEONTOLOGY

A discovery of riphean heterotrophs in the Lakhanda group of Siberia

(2010) T. N. Hermann et al.   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

The Shifting Balance of Diversity Among Major Marine Animal Groups

(2010) J. Alroy   SCIENCE

Where's the glass? Biomarkers, molecular clocks, and microRNAs suggest a 200-Myr missing Precambrian fossil record of siliceous sponge spicules

(2009) E. A. SPERLING et al.   Geobiology

Large spinose microfossils in Ediacaran rocks as resting stages of early animals

(2009) P. A. Cohen et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Eight-armed Ediacara fossil preserved in contrasting taphonomic windows from China and Australia

(2008) Maoyan Zhu et al.   GEOLOGY

An Early Cambrian radula

(2008) Nicholas J. Butterfield   JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY

Sophisticated particle-feeding in a large Early Cambrian crustacean

(2008) Thomas H. P. Harvey et al.   NATURE

Origin and dispersal of the earliest brachiopods

(2008) G. T. Ushatinskaya   PALEONTOLOGICAL JOURNAL

New records of late Ediacaran microbiota from Poland

(2008) M MOCZYDLOWSKA   PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH

The Neoproterozoic assembly of Gondwana and its relationship to the Ediacaran–Cambrian radiation

(2007) Joseph G. Meert et al.   GONDWANA RESEARCH