Doushanto Fossils Neither Embryos nor Animals (2 of 3) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Doushanto Fossils Neither Embryos nor Animals (2 of 3)

Caption

In the early developmental stages (left), this 570 million-year-old fossil resembles a spherical embryo of an animal. The purple shapes represent cell nuclei. Later developmental stages (right) show it to germinate and produce spores for propagation. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Dec. 23, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by T. Huldtgren at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues, was titled, “Fossilized Nuclei and Germination Structures Identify Ediacaran “Animal Embryos.”

Credit

Source: Swedish Museum of Natural History

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