Inference of facultative mobility in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism Parvancorina

Biology Letters
Simon A F DarrochMarc Laflamme

Abstract

Establishing how Ediacaran organisms moved and fed is critical to deciphering their ecological and evolutionary significance, but has long been confounded by their non-analogue body plans. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics to quantitatively analyse water flow around the Ediacaran taxon Parvancorina, thereby testing between competing models for feeding mode and mobility. The results show that flow was not distributed evenly across the organism, but was directed towards localized areas; this allows us to reject osmotrophy, and instead supports either suspension feeding or detritivory. Moreover, the patterns of recirculating flow differ substantially with orientation to the current, suggesting that if Parvancorina was a suspension feeder, it would have been most efficient if it was able to re-orient itself with respect to current direction, and thus ensure flow was directed towards feeding structures. Our simulations also demonstrate that the amount of drag varied with orientation, indicating that Parvancorina would have greatly benefited from adjusting its position to minimize drag. Inference of facultative mobility in Parvancorina suggests that Ediacaran benthic ecosystems might have possessed a higher proportion of mobi...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

References

Apr 23, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Mary L Droser, James G Gehling
Dec 6, 2016·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·John A CunninghamPhilip C J Donoghue
Mar 31, 2017·Scientific Reports·John R PatersonRussell D C Bicknell

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Citations

Jun 22, 2019·Science Advances·Brandt M GibsonSimon A F Darroch
Sep 23, 2020·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Brandt M GibsonSimon A F Darroch
Sep 19, 2018·Nature Ecology & Evolution·Simon A F DarrochPeter J Wagner
Jul 10, 2020·Interface Focus·M Gabriela Mángano, Luis A Buatois
Jul 17, 2018·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Simon A F DarrochDouglas H Erwin

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