Expression of Hairpin-Enriched Mitochondrial DNA in Two Hairworm Species (Nematomorpha).

Nematomorpha (hairworms) is a phylum of parasitic ecdysozoans, best known for infecting arthropods and guiding their hosts toward water, where the parasite can complete its life cycle. Over 350 species of nematomorphs have been described, yet molecular data for the group remain scarce. The few available mitochondrial genomes of nematomorphs are enriched with long inverted repeats, which are embedded in the coding sequences of their genes-a remarkably unusual feature exclusive to this phylum.

Simple sediment rheology explains the Ediacara biota preservation.

The soft-bodied Ediacara biota (571-541 million years ago) represents the oldest complex large organisms in the fossil record, providing a bridge between largely microbial ecosystems of the Precambrian and the animal-dominated world of the Phanerozoic, potentially holding clues about the early evolution of Metazoa. However, the nature of most Ediacaran organisms remains unresolved, partly due to their enigmatic non-actualistic preservation. Here, we show that Flinders-style fossilization of Ediacaran organisms was promoted by unusually prolonged conservation of organic matter, coupled with differences in rheological behaviour of the over- and underlying sediments.

Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil as one of the earliest animals.

The enigmatic Ediacara biota (571 million to 541 million years ago) represents the first macroscopic complex organisms in the geological record and may hold the key to our understanding of the origin of animals. Ediacaran macrofossils are as "strange as life on another planet" and have evaded taxonomic classification, with interpretations ranging from marine animals or giant single-celled protists to terrestrial lichens. Here, we show that lipid biomarkers extracted from organically preserved Ediacaran macrofossils unambiguously clarify their phylogeny.

Molecular fossils from organically preserved Ediacara biota reveal cyanobacterial origin for Beltanelliformis.

The Ediacara biota (~575-541 million years ago) mark the emergence of large, complex organisms in the palaeontological record, preluding the radiation of modern animal phyla. However, their phylogenetic relationships, even at the domain level, remain controversial. We report the discovery of molecular fossils from organically preserved specimens of Beltanelliformis, demonstrating that they represent large spherical colonies of cyanobacteria.

First macrobiota biomineralization was environmentally triggered.

Why large and diverse skeletons first appeared 550 Ma is not well understood. Many Ediacaran skeletal biota show evidence of flexibility, and bear notably thin skeletal walls with simple, non-hierarchical microstructures of either aragonite or high-Mg calcite. We present evidence that the earliest skeletal macrobiota, found only in carbonate rocks, had close soft-bodied counterparts hosted in contemporary clastic rocks.