And in a new study published today by Nature, it’s helped palaeontologists understand how an organism that’s been extinct for about 540 million years reproduced.
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Rangeomorphs, which lived 2km under the sea, were a few of the earliest complex organisms on Earth and have been considered to be a few of the first animals. The creatures prospered in the ocean during the late Ediacaran period, between 580 million and 541 million years ago, just before the Cambrian era.
What’s more, rangeomorphs don’t appear to have been equipped with mouths, organs or the ability to move around, and the animals likely absorbed nutrients from the water, the researchers said. They found that larger, or “grandparent”, rangeomorphs were randomly distributed in their ancient marine environment, but were surrounded by increasingly smaller clusters of biological descendants, like “children” and ‘grandchildren.’. One was a way of multiplying akin to the spider and strawberry plants, BBC News noted.
Reported by lead author of the study Emily Mitchell from the University of Cambridge, the rangeomorphs are not even remotely similar to any fossilized records which is a big mystery for scientists. “However we have developed an entire new method of taking a look at them, which has helped us perceive them rather a lot higher – most apparently, how they reproduced”.
Mitchell and her colleagues looked at fossils of a rangeomorph known as a Fractofusus found in Newfoundland, in southeastern Canada. Similar to other rangeomorphs, the Fractofusus is also immobile meaning the fossils are in the exact location where the creatures once lived during the Ediacaran period. One aspect of the spatial pattern suggested rapid, asexual reproduction via stolons or runners. Plants were able eject little pieces of themselves out into the ocean, where these seed- spore-like propagules could be carried to new territory.
These findings are particularly fascinating because it has been a long-standing mystery as to whether rangeomorphs were closer to plants or animals.
“Reproduction in this way made rangeomorphs highly successful, since they could both colonize new areas and rapidly spread once they got there”, Mitchell said. “The capability of those organisms to modify between two distinct modes of copy exhibits simply how refined their underlying biology was, which is exceptional at a time limit when most different types of life have been extremely easy”.
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“The complexity of Fractofusus’ reproductive mode is intriguing, in part, because it would be surprising if large complex organisms hadn’t existed prior to this development”. However an evaluation of the distribution of Fractofusus fossils has allowed scientists to reconstruct the creature’s distinctive two-pronged reproductive technique.
