Ediacaran creatures were once placed in a mysterious extinct kingdom called Vendobionta. Then Ilya Bobrovskiy found preserved cholesterol degradation products in Dickinsonia, a molecule only animals produce. Dr. Frankie Dunn at Oxford added growth-pattern evidence confirming they were indeed animals.
Cholesterol evidence proves Ediacaran organisms were animals
Key facts
- For a long time Ediacaran organisms were thought to belong to an extinct kingdom called Vendobionta, distinct from animals, plants, or fungi
- Ilya Bobrovskiy found a fossil with a carbon film containing degradation products of cholesterol, which is only produced by animals
- This molecular fingerprint evidence identified Dickinsonia as an animal, and by association other Ediacaran vendobionts
- Dr. Frankie Dunn at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History studied growth modes, showing they were consistent only with animals
Sources
Dickinsoniaen.wikipedia.org
In 2018 it was found that many Russian specimens contained cholesterol, which is only produced by animals, supporting an animal affinity.
Cholesterol traces suggest these mysterious fossils were ...sciencenews.org
Researchers led by paleontologist Ilya Bobrovskiy. The team found an abundance of cholesterol that points firmly to the animal kingdom.
Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia ...pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
by I Bobrovskiy · 2018 · Cited by 285 — Authors Ilya Bobrovskiy 1 ・ lipid biomarkers extracted from organically preserved Ediacaran macrofossils ・ produced cholesteroids,
Molecular fossil solves paleontology mystery - ACS Publicationspubs.acs.org
Greater than 97% of the sterols in the Dickinsonia sample were cholesteroids—27-carbon compounds present in almost all animals in the form of cholesterol. The ...
Earliest animal fossils are identifiedbbc.com
He found that Dickinsonia fossils contained very high levels of cholesterol molecules - up to 93% - compared with the surrounding sediment, ...
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