The evolution of early Foraminifera

Autor(en)

Jan Pawlowski, Maria Holzmann, Cedric Berney, José F. Fahrni, Andrew J. Gooday, Tomas Cedhagen, Andrea Habura, Samuel S Bowser

Abstrakt

Fossil Foraminifera appear in the Early Cambrian, at about the same time as the first skeletonized metazoans. However, due to the inadequate preservation of early unilocular (single-chambered) foraminiferal tests and difficulties in their identification, the evolution of early foraminifers is poorly understood. By using molecular data from a wide range of extant naked and testate unilocular species, we demonstrate that a large radiation of nonfossilized unilocular Foraminifera preceded the diversification of multilocular lineages during the Carboniferous. Within this radiation, similar test morphologies and wall types developed several times independently. Our findings indicate that the early Foraminifera were an important component of Neoproterozoic protistan community, whose ecological complexity was probably much higher than has been generally accepted.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Paläontologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Université de Genève, University of Oxford, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, Aarhus University, New York State Department of Health

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)

Band

100

Seiten

11494-11498

Anzahl der Seiten

5

ISSN

0027-8424

Publikationsdatum

2003

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

105118 Paläontologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-evolution-of-early-foraminifera(2ee20df6-db79-47eb-a07c-fb2c7a605f57).html