Scientists show Earth’s earliest underwater animal communities were capable of changing their environment

• Ancient marine animal forests influenced ocean food and oxygen distribution over 560 million years ago
• Changes happened millions of years before the evolution of major modern animal groups in the ‘Cambrian explosion’
• Scientists found complex interactions, like those of modern coral reefs, existed at this time

A new study led by the Natural History Museum used virtual recreations of the earliest animal ecosystems, known as marine animal forests, to demonstrate the part they played in the evolution of our planet.

Using state-of-the-art computer simulations of fossils from the Ediacaran time period, approximately 565 million years ago, scientists were able to show how these animals mixed the surrounding seawater potentially increasing local oxygen levels.

Through this process, scientists believe these early communities could have played a crucial role in shaping the initial emergence of large and complex organisms prior to a major evolutionary radiation of different forms of animal life, the so-called Cambrian ‘explosion’.

Dr Imran Rahman, lead author and Principal Researcher at the Natural History Museum, said: “The approach we’ve developed to study Ediacaran fossil communities is entirely new in palaeontology, providing us with a powerful tool for studying how past and present marine ecosystems might shape and influence their environment.”

“It’s really exciting that we can investigate how these early animal ecosystems functioned, providing clues as to how life as we know it today first evolved, especially considering that their fossil remains are more than half a billion years old.”

To test how far back this process goes in Earth’s history, the international research team sought to investigate some of the earliest examples of marine animal communities, which are known from rocks at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. This world-famous fossil site perfectly preserves early life forms thanks to a cover of volcanic ash (sometimes referred to as an ‘Ediacaran Pompeii’).

First author Dr Susana Gutarra, a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, said: “We used ecological modelling and computer simulations to investigate how 3D virtual assemblages of Ediacaran life forms affected water flow. Our results showed that these communities were capable of ecological functions similar to those seen in present-day marine ecosystems.”

Co-author Dr Rachel Racicot, Head of Evolution of Sensory Systems at Senckenberg Museum of Natural History, added: “This study represents the culmination of many years of work by our group refining these powerful computational techniques to study enigmatic Ediacaran organisms. We are really excited about the new questions this will allow us to tackle in the future.”

The study showed that one of the most important Ediacaran organisms for disrupting the flow of water was the cabbage-shaped animal Bradgatia, named after Bradgate Park in England. The Bradgatia from Mistaken Point are among some of the largest fossils known from this site, reaching diameters of over 50 centimetres.

Through their influence on the water around them, the scientists believe these Ediacaran organisms might have been capable of enhancing local oxygen concentrations. This biological mixing might also have had repercussions for the wider environment, possibly making other areas of the sea floor more habitable and even driving evolutionary innovation, such as the evolution of new feeding and movement styles.

The findings of the study, “Ediacaran marine animal forests and the ventilation of the oceans” will be published in the journal, Current Biology, on 17 May at 16:00 BST. The paper can be accessed from that time here.

This work was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the US National Science Foundation.

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