Nature Communications (Jan 2020)

Discovery of bilaterian-type through-guts in cloudinomorphs from the terminal Ediacaran Period

  • James D. Schiffbauer,
  • Tara Selly,
  • Sarah M. Jacquet,
  • Rachel A. Merz,
  • Lyle L. Nelson,
  • Michael A. Strange,
  • Yaoping Cai,
  • Emily F. Smith

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13882-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Cloudinomorphs were one of the few groups to survive from the Ediacaran into the Cambrian, but they are known only from their external tubes. Here, Schiffbauer et al. report soft-tissue preservation of cloudinomorphs; the internal structures are interpreted as guts characteristic of bilaterians.