Nanjing, June 13 (China News Service) According to the News Agency of Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 13th, the international team led by the Institute has studied the internal structure of the Urn Trinidae 600 million years ago through high-resolution microCT and synchrotron radiation microtomography technology, and finally solved the "mystery of the origin" of the species that has plagued the scientific community for many years.
The study was published online on the same day in Science Advances, a sub-journal of the American journal Science.
The picture shows Urn Foraminifera in the late stage of cell division. Nangusho
The paleontological community believes that the field of animal origin has been dominated by theoretical research in evolutionary developmental biology, and this situation did not begin to change until a large number of animal embryonic fossils were found in the Ediacaran biota.
At present, the research on the evolution and development of the animal general boundary taxon in the Wong'an biota has just begun, and there are still a large number of difficult fossils with unclear systematic classification locations, some of which are very similar in appearance to animal embryonic fossils - Urn Amphibian is one of the typical.
The picture shows urn foraminifera in the early stage of cell division. Nangusho
In order to explore the problems related to Urn Trianginae, Researcher Yin Zongjun and Researcher Zhu Maoyan of the Early Life Research Team of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liu Pengju, a researcher at the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, and Professor Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, used high-resolution micro-CT and synchrotron radiation microtomography to scan hundreds of fossil specimens of Urn Foraminifera, and finally found a well-preserved internal biological structure.
According to Yin Zongjun, the researchers synthesized the development process and morphological structure characteristics of triomyrostrophy and believed that triomniosus belongs to a member of the general animal kingdom, so the development process of triomyros also provides an important clue to understand the origin of animals.
The picture shows the fossil of Urn Andromynia. Nangusho
"The embryonic fossils in the Wong'an biota include macrocospheres, spinocytoids, cage balls, etc., all of which have developed similar, decorated sacs, which do not have biological taxonomic significance, but are the result of convergent evolution." But this similar sac structure obscures the biodiversity of the Wong'an biota, Yin zongjun said, meaning that there may be more fossil taxa belonging to the animal population in the Wong'an biota that have not been discovered, and there should be greater potential worth tapping in the future. (End)