Inference of facultative mobility in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism Parvancorina.

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 efficien

SUBMITTER: Darroch SAF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5454237 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature