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Ecological tiering and the evolution of a stem: the oldest stemmed frond from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Marc Laflamme ,
Lija I. Flude  and
Guy M. Narbonne
Marc Laflamme
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada presently a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, USA,
Lija I. Flude
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
Guy M. Narbonne
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
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Abstract

The ecological segregation of large, multicellular eukaryotes in the Ediacaran in response to competitive feeding results in the evolution of novel morphological adaptations such as sturdy stems to elevate above lower-tier feeding guilds. Culmofrons plumosa n. gen. n. sp. lived attached to the ocean floor and probably fed osmotrophically from dissolved organic nutrients in the water column. Competition for nutrients with specialized lower-tiered organisms resulted in the evolution of a specialized non-feeding structure, drastically expanding the functional morphospace available to Ediacaran rangeomorphs. The first appearance of a cylindrical macroscopic stem in C. plumosa in the Briscal Formation of the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve marks a significant departure from the modular repetitive branching typical of the Rangeomorpha, and exemplifies the importance of nutrient acquisition in early ecosystem engineering.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 193 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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