Xunlai Yuan

Morpho-functional innovations in Shibantan fossils fuel Ediacaran frond debates

The Ediacara biota represents Earth’s earliest complex macroscopic organisms, but their biology and ecology remain poorly understood. Here we report Dengyingia pennata gen. et sp. nov., an exceptionally preserved frondose fossil from the late Ediacaran ( ~550–543 Ma) Shibantan li...

Chemosymbiotic trophic strategy in an Ediacaran tubular animal

Chemosymbiosis may have been a key driver of early animal evolution and diversification. Yet evidence for animal–microbe nutritional partnerships in the fossil record of early metazoans remains scarce, largely owing to the limited availability of robust geochemical proxies and su...