CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 109Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsEvolution and Paleontology StudiesPaleontology and Evolutionary Biology

Ediacaran biozones identified with network analysis provide evidence for pulsed extinctions of early complex life

Open access
Muscente, A. D., Bykova, Natalia, Boag, Thomas H., Buatois, Luis A., Mángano, M. Gabriela, Eleish, Ahmed, Prabhu, Anirudh, Pan, Feifei +5 more·2019·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-08837-3PMC PMC6384941
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Rocks of Ediacaran age (~635–541 Ma) contain the oldest fossils of large, complex organisms and their behaviors. These fossils document developmental and ecological innovations, and suggest that extinctions helped to shape the trajectory of early animal evolution. Conventional methods divide Ediacaran macrofossil localities into taxonomically distinct clusters, which may represent evolutionary, environmental, or preservational variation. Here, we investigate these possibilities with network analysis of body and trace fossil occurrences. By partitioning multipartite networks of taxa, paleoenvironments, and geologic formations into community units, we distinguish between biostratigraphic zones and paleoenvironmentally restricted biotopes, and provide empirically robust and statistically significant evidence for a global, cosmopolitan assemblage unique to terminal Ediacaran strata. The assemblage is taxonomically depauperate but includes fossils of recognizable eumetazoans, which lived between two episodes of biotic turnover. These turnover events were the first major extinctions of complex life and paved the way for the Cambrian radiation of animals.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-019-08837-3

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Perhaps both innovation and extinction among the early animals were driven by ephemeral environmental change.

    “Perhaps both innovation and extinction among the early animals were driven by ephemeral environmental change (Evans et al., 2018; Muscente et al., 2019).”

    From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Muscente et al., 2019

    The Introduction says environmental disturbance may have contributed to the extinction of Ediacaran taxa, and the Discussion considers environmental catastrophe as a possible driver of biotic turnover. The paper does not establish that ephemeral environmental change also drove innovation among early animals; it says the durations and drivers of the events remain unresolved. The copy provides section labels but no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The Nama paleocommunity is found in dominantly shallow marine siliciclastic and carbonate settings.

    “the soft-bodied and skeletal (calcified) Nama paleocommunity (dominated by cloudinomorphs) is found in dominantly shallow marine siliciclastic and carbonate settings (16, 17, 22–24).”

    From Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations (2024) · cites this paper as [17]

  • To correct for underrepresented heavily sampled areas, the database was complemented by assigning age ranges for some important fossiliferous sections that are included in the full occurrence matrix of (17).

    “To correct for this, we complemented our database by assigning age ranges for some important fossiliferous sections that are included in the full occurrence matrix of (17) (e.g., age ranges prescribed to some sections that host the Ediacara Member, Australia, based on preliminary biostratigraphic correlation of constituents of the White Sea paleocommunity).”

    From Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations (2024) · cites this paper as [17]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

No citation lists for this paper

No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.

References 73 · Cited by 109

Research works printed but not linked: 43

  1. [3]Droser ML Gehling JG The advent of animals: The view from the Ediacaran Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. 2015 112 4865 4870 10.1073/pnas.1403669112 25901306 PMC4413262 · DOI
  2. [5]Xiao S Yuan X Steiner M Knoll AH Macroscopic carbonaceous compressions in a terminal Proterozoic shale: a systematic reassessment of the Miaohe biota, South China J. Paleontol. 2002 76 347 376 10.1017/S0022336000041743 · DOI
  3. [9]Grant SWF Shell structure and distribution of Cloudina, a potential index fossil for the terminal Proterozoic Am. J. Sci. 1990 290-A 261 294 11538690
  4. [11]Kolesnikov AV The oldest skeletal macroscopic organism Palaeopascichnus linearis Precambrian Res. 2018 316 24 37 10.1016/j.precamres.2018.07.017 · DOI
  5. [16]Hoyal Cuthill JF Han J Cambrian petalonamid Stromatoveris phylogenetically links Ediacaran biota to later animals Palaeontology 2018 61 813 823 10.1111/pala.12393 · DOI
  6. [17]Clapham ME Narbonne GM Ediacaran epifaunal tiering Geology 2002 30 627 630 10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0627:EET>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
  7. [18]Meyer M Interactions between Ediacaran animals and microbial mats: Insights from Lamonte trevallis, a new trace fossil from the Dengying Formation of South China Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 2014 396 62 74 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.12.026 · DOI
  8. [19]Buatois LA Almond J Mángano MG Jensen S Germs GJB Sediment disturbance by Ediacaran bulldozers and the roots of the Cambrian explosion Sci. Rep. 2018 8 1 9 10.1038/s41598-018-22859-9 29540817 PMC5852133 · DOI
  9. [20]Becker-Kerber B Ecological interactions in Cloudina from the Ediacaran of Brazil: implications for the rise of animal biomineralization Sci. Rep. 2017 7 5482 10.1038/s41598-017-05753-8 28710440 PMC5511220 · DOI
  10. [22]Muscente AD Exceptionally preserved fossil assemblages through geologic time and space Gondwana Res. 2017 48 164 188 10.1016/j.gr.2017.04.020 · DOI
  11. [24]Amthor JE Extinction of Cloudina and Namacalathus at the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary in Oman Geology 2003 31 431 434 10.1130/0091-7613(2003)031<0431:EOCANA>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
  12. [25]Smith EF The end of the Ediacaran: Two exceptionally preserved body fossil assemblages from Mount Dunfee, Nevada, USA Geology 2016 44 911 914 10.1130/G38157.1 · DOI
  13. [27]Darroch SAF Smith EF Laflamme M Erwin DH Ediacaran Extinction and Cambrian Explosion Trends Ecol. Evol. 2018 33 653 663 10.1016/j.tree.2018.06.003 30007844 · DOI · Paper page
  14. [28]Smith EF Nelson LL Tweedt SM Zeng H Workman JB A cosmopolitan late Ediacaran biotic assemblage: new fossils from Nevada and Namibia support a global biostratigraphic link Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci. 2017 284 1 10 PMC5524506 28701565
  15. [29]Xiao S Toward an Ediacaran time scale: problems, protocols, and prospects Episodes 2016 39 540 555 10.18814/epiiugs/2016/v39i4/103886 · DOI
  16. [30]Xiao S Zhou C Liu P Wang D Yuan X Phosphatized acanthomorphic acritarchs and related microfossils from the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation at Weng’an (South China) and their implications for biostratigraphic correlation J. Paleontol. 2014 88 1 67 10.1666/12-157R · DOI
  17. [31]Boag TH Darroch SAF Laflamme M Ediacaran distributions in space and time: Testing assemblage concepts of earliest macroscopic body fossils Paleobiology 2016 42 574 594 10.1017/pab.2016.20 · DOI · Paper page
  18. [33]Grazhdankin D Patterns of distribution in the Ediacaran biotas: facies versus biogeography and evolution Paleobiology 2004 30 203 221 10.1666/0094-8373(2004)030<0203:PODITE>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
  19. [35]Gehling JG Droser ML How well do fossil assemblages of the Ediacara Biota tell time? Geology 2013 41 447 450 10.1130/G33881.1 · DOI · Paper page
  20. [36]Muscente AD Quantifying ecological impacts of mass extinctions with network analysis of fossil communities Proc.. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2018 115 5217 5222 10.1073/pnas.1719976115 29686079 PMC5960297 · DOI
  21. [37]Newman, M. E. J. Networks: An Introduction (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, UK, 2010).
  22. [38]Kadushin, C. Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings. 264 (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, UK, 2012).
  23. [39]Costanzo M A global genetic interaction network maps a wiring diagram of cellular function Science 2016 353 aaf1420-1 aaf1420-14 10.1126/science.aaf1420 27708008 PMC5661885 · DOI · Paper page
  24. [40]Harel A Karkar S Cheng S Falkowski PG Bhattacharya D Deciphering primordial cyanobacterial genome functions from protein network analysis Curr. Biol. 2015 25 628 634 10.1016/j.cub.2014.12.061 25683807 · DOI
  25. [41]Morrison SM Network analysis of mineralogical systems Am. Mineral. 2017 102 1588 1596 10.2138/am-2017-6104CCBYNCND · DOI
  26. [42]Cheng S Sequence similarity network reveals the imprints of major diversification events in the evolution of microbial life Front. Ecol. Evol. 2014 2 1 13 10.3389/fevo.2014.00072 · DOI
  27. [43]Banda-R K Plant diversity patterns in neotropical dry forests and their conservation implications Science 2016 353 1383 1387 10.1126/science.aaf5080 27708031 · DOI
  28. [45]Kocsis AacuteT Reddin CJ Kiessling W The biogeographical imprint of mass extinctions Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci. 2018 285 1 6 10.1098/rspb.2018.0232 PMC5966600 29720415 · DOI
  29. [46]Clauset A Newman MEJ Moore C Finding community structure in very large networks Phys. Rev. E 2004 70 1 6 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.066111 15697438 · DOI · Paper page
  30. [47]Nicosia V Mangioni G Carchiolo V Malgeri M Extending the definition of modularity to directed graphs with overlapping communities J. Stat. Mech. Theory E. 2009 2009 1 22 10.1088/1742-5468/2009/03/P03024 · DOI
  31. [48]Hofmann, H. J. in Early Life on Earth (ed. S. Bengtson) 342–357 (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, USA, 1994).
  32. [50]Bowring SA Calibrating rates of Early Cambrian evolution Science 1993 261 1293 1298 10.1126/science.11539488 11539488 · DOI
  33. [52]Gotelli, N. J. & Colwell, R. K. in Frontiers inMeasuring Biodiversity (eds. A. E. Magurran & B. J. McGill) 39–54 (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, UK, 2011).
  34. [53]Buatois LA Mángano MG Olea RA Wilson MA Decoupled evolution of soft and hard substrate communities during the Cambrian Explosion and Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event Proc.. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2016 113 6945 6948 10.1073/pnas.1523087113 27247396 PMC4922141 · DOI
  35. [59]Meyer M Schiffbauer JD Xiao S Cai Y Hua H Taphonomy of the late Ediacaran enigmatic ribbon-like fossil Shaanxilithes Palaios 2012 27 354 372 10.2110/palo.2011.p11-098r · DOI · Paper page
  36. [60]Tarhan LG Precambrian–Cambrian boundary interval occurrence and form of the enigmatic tubular body fossil Shaanxilithes ningqiangensis from the Lesser Himalaya of India Palaeontology 2014 57 283 298 10.1111/pala.12066 · DOI
  37. [61]Grazhdankin DV Marusin VV Meert J Krupenin MT Kotlin regional stage in the South Urals Dokl. Earth Sci. 2011 440 1222 1226 10.1134/S1028334X11090170 · DOI
  38. [62]Wright N Zahirovic S Müller RD Seton M Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: Integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics Biogeosciences 2013 10 1529 1541 10.5194/bg-10-1529-2013 · DOI
  39. [63]Buatois LA Wisshak M Wilson MA Mángano MG Categories of architectural designs in trace fossils: A measure of ichnodisparity Earth Sci. Rev. 2017 164 102 181 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.08.009 · DOI
  40. [64]Liu AG McIlroy D Antcliffe JB Brasier MD Effaced preservation in the Ediacara biota and its implications for the early macrofossil record Palaeontology 2011 54 607 630 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.01024.x · DOI
  41. [66]Tarhan LG Droser ML Gehling JG Dzaugis MP Taphonomy and morphology of the Ediacara form genus Aspidella Precambrian Res. 2015 257 124 136 10.1016/j.precamres.2014.11.026 · DOI
  42. [67]Gregory S Finding overlapping communities in networks by label propagation New J. Phys. 2010 12 1 21 10.1088/1367-2630/12/10/103018 · DOI
  43. [70]Rogov V The oldest evidence of bioturbation on Earth Geology 2012 40 395 398 10.1130/G32807.1 · DOI · Paper page

Authors
Muscente, A. D., Bykova, N., Boag, T. H., Buatois, L. A., Mángano, M. G., Eleish, A., Prabhu, A., Pan, F., Meyer, M. B., Schiffbauer, J. D., Fox, P., Hazen, R. M., & Knoll, A. H.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (RU)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • University of Saskatchewan (CA)
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (US)
  • Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (US)
  • University of Missouri (US)
  • Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
Corresponding author
Muscente, A. D.
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-02-22
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
911-911
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-019-08837-3
PMC
PMC6384941
OpenAlex
W2917380209
Cited by
109
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 8
FWCI
11.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  • W. M. Keck Foundation
  • Carnegie Institution of Washington
  • Carnegie Institution for Science
  • Russian Science Foundation (17-17-01241)
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
Keywords
Ediacaran, biozones, network analysis, biotic turnover, mass extinction, early animal evolution, trace fossils, body fossils, paleoenvironment, biotope, Cambrian explosion, Ediacaran macrofossils
MeSH terms
Animals, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Paleontology, Extinction, Biological

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review