Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution

Artistic reconstruction of Fractofusus on the H14 surface, Bonavista Peninsula

Organisms named Fractofusus cover the sea floor some 560 million years ago, in a reconstruction of fossils from Newfoundland, Canada. Credit: Dr Charlotte G. Kenchington

Listen to an audio version of this story

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 586, 662-665 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02985-z

References

  1. Chen, Z., Zhou, C., Yuan, X. & Xiao, S. Nature 573, 412–415 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen, Z., Chen, X., Zhou, C., Yuan, X. & Xiao, S. Sci. Adv. 4, eaao6691 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ford, T. D. Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc. 31, 211–217 (1958).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Seilacher, A. Lethaia 22, 229–239 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Seilacher, A. J. Geol. Soc. 149, 607–613 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bobrovskiy, I. et al. Science 361, 1246–1249 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Evans, S. D., Hughes, I. V., Gehling, J. G. & Droser, M. L. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 7845–7850 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Schiffbauer, J. D. et al. Nature Commun. 11, 205 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Dunn, F. S., Liu, A. G. & Donoghue, P. C. J. Biol. Rev. Camb. Phil. Soc. 93, 914–932 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mitchell, E. G., Kenchington, C. G., Liu, A. G., Matthews, J. J. & Butterfield, N. J. Nature 524, 343–360 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu, A. G. & Dunn, F. S. Curr. Biol. 30, 1322–1328 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhu, M., Zhuravlev, A. Yu., Wood, R. A., Zhao, F. & Sukhov, S. S. Geology 45, 459–462 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Wood, R. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. 3, 528–538 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Quick links