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Palaeontology

Embryonic identity crisis

Nature volume 445, pages 155–156 (2007)Cite this article

The oldest known animal fossils, identified as eggs and embryos, had been expected to reveal secrets from a period of great evolutionary change. Will the latest theory about the fossils' origins confound these hopes?

The origin of animals is almost as much a mystery as the origin of life itself. An abundant fossil record extends back 542 million years to the beginning of the Cambrian period, testifying to the establishment of all of today's main groups of animals by this time. However, the degree to which animal evolutionary history extends beyond the Cambrian is a controversy rich in speculation but sparse in evidence. It is no wonder that the 1998 report of fossilized animal embryos from the Doushantuo phosphorite rocks of southern China created a stir1. At more than 580 million years old, these were the oldest unequivocal animal fossils, and, as embryos, they provided a glimpse of animal embryology at a time when today's main animal groups were emerging. These fossils have revealed ancient patterns of cell division and cell arrangement2, and promised to reveal further secrets about developmental evolution at this crucial time. But this prospect may have been dashed by a study on page 198 of this issue3 presenting a compelling reinterpretation of these fossils — not as animal embryos, but as giant bacteria Footnote 1.

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Figure 1: Fossil embryos?

Notes

  1. This article and the paper concerned3 were published online on 20 December 2006.

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  1. the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK

    Philip C. J. Donoghue

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  1. Philip C. J. Donoghue
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Donoghue, P. Embryonic identity crisis. Nature 445, 155–156 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05520

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