| Autor: |
Cracknell K; School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK., García-Bellido DC; School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia.; South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia., Gehling JG; South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia., Ankor MJ; Department of Earth Sciences and Sprigg Geobiology Centre, University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia., Darroch SAF; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235-1805, USA.; Senckenberg Museum of Natural History, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany., Rahman IA; Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, OX1 3PW, UK. imran.rahman@oum.ox.ac.uk. |
| Abstrakt: |
Suspension feeding is a key ecological strategy in modern oceans that provides a link between pelagic and benthic systems. Establishing when suspension feeding first became widespread is thus a crucial research area in ecology and evolution, with implications for understanding the origins of the modern marine biosphere. Here, we use three-dimensional modelling and computational fluid dynamics to establish the feeding mode of the enigmatic Ediacaran pentaradial eukaryote Arkarua. Through comparisons with two Cambrian echinoderms, Cambraster and Stromatocystites, we show that flow patterns around Arkarua strongly support its interpretation as a passive suspension feeder. Arkarua is added to the growing number of Ediacaran benthic suspension feeders, suggesting that the energy link between pelagic and benthic ecosystems was likely expanding in the White Sea assemblage (~ 558-550 Ma). The advent of widespread suspension feeding could therefore have played an important role in the subsequent waves of ecological innovation and escalation that culminated with the Cambrian explosion. |
