Jie Yang
Shishania is a chancelloriid and not a Cambrian mollusk
Yang, Jie; Li, Wei; Chen, Ai-lin; Du, Kun-sheng; Peng, Xiao; Wang, Yu; Zhang, Xi-guang; Smith, Martin
Authors
Wei Li
Ai-lin Chen
Kun-sheng Du
Xiao Peng
Yu Wang
Xi-guang Zhang
Dr Martin Smith martin.smith@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Abstract
The Cambrian evolutionary radiation is noted for its profusion of bizarre and unfamiliar body forms, many of which illuminate the early ancestry of major animal groups. The spine-covered fossil Shishania aculeata (Cambrian Stage 4, Yunnan, China) has been interpreted as intermediate between mollusks and their lophotrochozoan ancestors. Our new material challenges this interpretation. We propose taphonomic explanations for apparent molluscan features and instead identify prominent anatomical similarities to coeval chancelloriids from nearby strata. Our reinterpretation of Shishania as an early-diverging chancelloriid helps to consolidate a model for the early evolution of this enduringly problematic group of sponge-like metazoans.
Citation
Yang, J., Li, W., Chen, A.-L., Du, K.-S., Peng, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, X.-G., & Smith, M. (2025). Shishania is a chancelloriid and not a Cambrian mollusk. Science, 388(6747), 662-664. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv4635
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Mar 26, 2025 |
Online Publication Date | May 8, 2025 |
Publication Date | May 8, 2025 |
Deposit Date | Mar 27, 2025 |
Publicly Available Date | May 23, 2025 |
Journal | Science |
Print ISSN | 0036-8075 |
Electronic ISSN | 1095-9203 |
Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 388 |
Issue | 6747 |
Pages | 662-664 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv4635 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3743040 |
Files
Accepted Journal Article
(3.7 Mb)
PDF
You might also like
Protomelission is an early dasyclad alga and not a Cambrian bryozoan
(2023)
Journal Article
The Cambrian cirratuliform Iotuba denotes an early annelid radiation
(2023)
Journal Article
Using information theory to detect rogue taxa and improve consensus trees
(2021)
Journal Article
Robust analysis of phylogenetic tree space
(2021)
Journal Article
Inapplicable data and the position of palaeoscolecids within Ecdysozoa
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Durham Research Online (DRO)
Administrator e-mail: dro.admin@durham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search