Fossil and Earliest Reproduction: 565-Million-Year-Old Canadian Organism

During the late Ediacaran period, the creature prospered in the oceans, possibly between a few 580 and 541 million years ago and these could grow to about 6.5 feet in length though majority were just about 4 inches.

The team was able to determine this propagation pattern by using Global Positioning System readings and statistical calculations to determine the way rangeomorphs called Fractofusus were distributed, a university statement said. But, the reproductive strategy of these organisms was complex and unusual considering their time.

Rangeomorphs were a few of the earliest complex organisms on Earth, and have been considered to be a few of the first animals – although it’s hard for scientists to be entirely sure.

This creature never appeared to move around, and it lacked a mouth or any specialized organ. But it seemed to absorb nutrients from the surrounding water. The patterns strongly resemble the biological clustering observed in modern plants, such that the “grandparents” arose from ejected waterborne propagules that drifted along in the current.

Emily Mitchell, the lead study author of the research, mentioned that rangeomorphs are such interesting creatures because they a unique species identified in fossils. She added further that a whole new way of looking at these creatures has now been developed and that has been helpful in understanding them much better and more interestingly, their process of procreation.

Southeastern Newfoundland is one of the world’s richest sources of fossils from the Ediacaran period. Since rangeomorphs were immobile, it is possible to find entire ecosystems preserved exactly where they lived, making them extremely suitable for study via spatial techniques.

The organisms in question lived in the ocean 565 million years ago and now it has transpired that they had a dual mode of reproduction.

While rangeomorphs don’t look like many other organisms in the fossil record, they do exhibit a few of the building blocks of modern reproductive strategies found in plants and animals that are still around today.

Researchers theorize that rangeomorphs likely had two reproduction techniques. The distribution of grandparents was random, while smaller parent and children populations were scattered around them. It suggested a form of asexual reproduction now common in plants. “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”.