PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE PHOSPHATIZED PUNCTATUS WITH MOUTHPARTS AND ITS EMBRYOS FROM LOWER CAMBRIAN IN NINGQIANG, SOUTH SHAANXI, CHINA
Article
Figures
Metrics
Preview PDF
Reference
Related
Cited by
Materials
Abstract:
The appearance of coelenterates marks the real beginning of metazoan evolution. Therefore, it has a prominent position in the origin and evolutionary history of organisms, and is also a pivotal problem of evolutionary biology. Punctatus is a kind of cone-like extinct metazoan in deciphering the Cambrian explosion. Some research workers are inclined to regard Punctatus as coelenterate. Study on embryos and adult of Punctatus plays an important role in early evolution, classification, systematic development of metazoans. This field has became a focus of palaeozoology. In this paper we report a series of the Punctatus fossils with hard parts and finely preserved soft-tissue-mouthparts and fossilized metazoan embryos which were recovered from the Kuanchuanpu Member of the Dengying Formation in South Shaanxi, China in 2003.
