Article
Biology
Shamindri Tennakoon, Roger W. Portell, Elizabeth Petsios, Carrie L. Tyler, Michal Kowalewski
Summary: This study aims to resolve the taxonomy of cassid gastropods from the upper Eocene Ocala Limestone. The study concludes that the specimens belong to a single species with extreme morphological variability, and highlights the challenges associated with delineating species status using low numbers of specimens.
HISTORICAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zheng Hou, Xiaoya Ma, Xuan Shi, Xi Li, Lingxiao Yang, Shuhai Xiao, Olivier De Clerck, Frederik Leliaert, Bojian Zhong
Summary: The Ulvophyceae, a diverse group of green algae, originated earlier than expected and may have influenced biogeochemical cycles at the Mesoproterozoic-Neoproterozoic transition, according to a study reconstructing their phylogeny using extensive nuclear gene data.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Katie M. Maloney, James D. Schiffbauer, Galen P. Halverson, Shuhai Xiao, Marc Laflamme
Summary: The rise of eukaryotic macroalgae played a crucial role in Earth's history, leading to ecosystems habitable to animals. However, the diversification and expansion of macroalgae are limited by a biased fossil record. Non-mineralizing organisms are rarely preserved and occur only in exceptional environments conducive to fossilization.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yunhuan Liu, Emily Carlisle, Huaqiao Zhang, Ben Yang, Michael Steiner, Tiequan Shao, Baichuan Duan, Federica Marone, Shuhai Xiao, Philip C. J. Donoghue
Summary: The early history of deuterostomes, composed of chordates, echinoderms, and hemichordates, is still controversial due to a lack of representative fossils. The microscopic animal Saccorhytus coronarius was previously thought to be an early deuterostome, but new material and analyses have shown that it actually belongs to the total group Ecdysozoa. This expands the morphological and ecological diversity of early Cambrian ecdysozoans.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Morrison Nolan, Shuhai Xiao, Benjamin Gill, Rachel Reid, Maxwel Schwid
Summary: This study reveals the source of carbonate clasts in the Nantuo Formation of the Yangtze Craton in South China, ruling out the possibility of the Shennongjia Group being the exclusive source. The findings suggest that the clasts may originate from pre-Marinoan carbonate successions in South China or from another adjacent craton during the Cryogenian Period.
PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Hongyi Shi, Qing Ouyang, Chuanming Zhou, Shuhai Xiao, Zhe Chen, Chengguo Guan
Summary: The Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation in South China provides important records of biological and environmental changes after the global glaciations in the Neoproterozoic period. This study presents new litho-, chemo-, and biostratigraphic data from the shelf-margin facies of the Doushantuo Formation, confirming the correlation of the upper Doushantuo Formation between shelf-margin and shelf-lagoon facies. The discovery of acritarch assemblages also highlights their potential as an independent stratigraphic tool in the subdivision and correlation of Ediacaran strata.
PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Huan Cui, Kouki Kitajima, Ian J. Orland, Jean-Marc Baele, Shuhai Xiao, Alan J. Kaufman, Adam Denny, Michael J. Spicuzza, John H. Fournelle, John W. Valley
Summary: Through studying an outer-shelf section in southern China, we discovered the heterogeneous nature of the Ediacaran Shuram excursion (SE) and proposed that methane oxidation played a crucial role in modulating this anomaly.
PRECAMBRIAN RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tobias B. Grun, Michal Kowalewski
Summary: This study summarizes SCUBA surveys of clypeasteroid and spatangoid echinoids conducted in the central part of the Florida Keys, documenting the widespread distribution of echinoids across various habitats and providing insights into the present-day status of local echinoid populations for assessing future regional changes in echinoid distribution and abundance.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xunlai Yuan, Ke Pang, Qing Tang, Guangjin Li, Shuhai Xiao, Chuanming Zhou, Zhe Chen, Lei Chen, Bin Wan, Wei Wang, Chengguo Guan, Qing Ouyang, Changtai Niu, Xiaopeng Wang, Yarong Liu
Summary: Complex multicellular eukaryotic organisms have dominated the Earth since the Precambrian-Cambrian transition, but the timing and dynamics of the evolutionary transitions from unicellular ancestors to complex organisms remain largely unclear. Recent advances in paleontology and molecular clock analysis suggest that complex organisms have deep roots in the "Boring Billion" period. This period, characterized by apparent environmental quiescence and evolutionary stasis, may have provided the conditions for the divergence of single-celled ancestors into major groups of complex organisms.
CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN-CHINESE
(2023)
Article
Paleontology
Katie M. Maloney, Dakota P. Maverick, James D. Schiffbauer, Galen P. Halverson, Shuhai Xiao, Marc Laflamme
Summary: The preservation of Proterozoic eukaryotic macroalgae is challenging due to the lack of necessary morphological details. Two additional forms have unidentified affinities, but the presence of three unique algal forms supports previous reports of increased algal diversity in the early Neoproterozoic.
JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Geology
Matias Do Nascimento Ritter, Fernando Erthal, Matthew A. Kosnik, Michal Kowalewski, Joao Carlos Coimbra, Felipe Caron, Darrell S. Kaufman
Summary: Surficial shell accumulations from shallow marine settings are typically dominated by recent specimens and exhibit strongly right-skewed age-frequency distributions. This study examines age-frequency distributions from offshore settings in southern Brazil and finds that deeper water environments have slightly longer time averaging and symmetrical to left-skewed distributions dominated by specimens from the Last Glacial Maximum. The observed changes in age-frequency distributions along the onshore-offshore gradient likely reflect sea-level changes and corresponding variations in biological productivity.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Junyao Kang, Benjamin Gill, Rachel Reid, Feifei Zhang, Shuhai Xiao
Summary: The early Neoproterozoic Era (approximately 1000 to 800 million years ago) saw the emergence of eukaryotes. This study examines whether nitrate availability influenced this evolution by analyzing nitrogen isotope compositions (δ15N) of marine carbonates from the early Tonian (approximately 1000 to 800 million years ago) Huaibei Group in North China. The findings suggest that nitrate limitation existed in the early Neoproterozoic oceans and that an increase in nitrate availability around 800 million years ago may have contributed to the ecological rise of eukaryotes.
Article
Biology
Guangjin Li, Lei Chen, Ke Pang, Qing Tang, Chengxi Wu, Xunlai Yuan, Chuanming Zhou, Shuhai Xiao
Summary: Horodyskia, a rare macrofossil, has been found to have organic walls and is interpreted as a colonial organism composed of multinucleated (coenocytic) cells. This study provides evidence that eukaryotes acquired macroscopic size through coenocytism and colonial multicellularity at least 1.48 billion years ago.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Huaqiao Zhang, Shuhai Xiao, Mats E. Eriksson, Baichuan Duan, Andreas Maas
Summary: This study reports the exceptional preservation of cycloneuralian introvert musculature in Fortunian rocks of South China, indicating a possible affinity with scalidophorans or priapulans and evolution during the early Cambrian Period.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wang Zheng, Anwen Zhou, Swapan K. Sahoo, Morrison R. Nolan, Chadlin M. Ostrander, Ruoyu Sun, Ariel D. Anbar, Shuhai Xiao, Jiubin Chen
Summary: We used mercury isotope compositions from black shale sections in South China to reconstruct the redox conditions of the Ediacaran ocean. Our results provide compelling evidence for recurrent photic zone euxinia occurring on the continental margin of South China during times of ocean oxygenation events. We suggest that this euxinia was driven by increased availability of sulfate and nutrients from a transiently oxygenated ocean, but also may have inhibited oxygen production and restricted the expansion of macroscopic oxygen-demanding animals in the Ediacaran.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)