The first animals: ca. 760-million-year-old sponge-like fossils from Namibia

Preservational and Morphological Variability of Assemblages of Agglutinated Eukaryotes in Cryogenian Cap Carbonates of Northern Namibia

“…Microbial laminites at Okaaru also preserve rare tubular agglutinated forms and large oval forms with one blunt end, resembling modern monothalamous tubular and globular foraminiferans (Bosak et al, 2011a(Bosak et al, , 2012. These initial findings from the Rasthof Formation at Ongongo and Okaaru, as well as a recent report of large phosphatized forms named Otavia from pre-Sturtian Namibian carbonates and the interglacial carbonates of the Ombaatjie Formation (Brain et al, 2012), inspire questions about the stratigraphic occurrence and variations of fossils within the Rasthof Formation. To this end, this study investigates microfossil morphology and preservation in similar facies at two additional localities of the lower Rasthof Formation: Ombepera and South Ombepera.…”

“…These structures are irregularly shaped and 0.3-5 mm long across the longest axis, with numerous 5-20-mm-wide openings across the entire surface, and contain phosphatic walls of irregular thickness and an internal cavity, possibly surrounded by a network of pores (Brain et al, 2012). An interpretation of these structures as sponges (Animalia) was based on the large sizes, porosity, and lack of agglutinated minerals (Brain et al, 2012); however, organic and agglutinated tests of many modern representatives of agglutinated and organic-walled early diverging foraminiferans and other Rhizaria are large, irregularly shaped, and contain internal sediment grains (Gooday, 1994;Gooday and Bowser, 2005;Rothe et al, 2009). …”

“…Dark limestone from the Otavi Group and the Nama Group in Namibia also contain biological structures, which were extracted primarily from samples of shallow-water sections in Etosha National Park (Brain et al, 2012). These structures are irregularly shaped and 0.3-5 mm long across the longest axis, with numerous 5-20-mm-wide openings across the entire surface, and contain phosphatic walls of irregular thickness and an internal cavity, possibly surrounded by a network of pores (Brain et al, 2012).…”

The Lantian biota: A new window onto the origin and early evolution of multicellular organisms

“…For example, the differentiation of xanthophytes, chlorophytes, and rhodophytes can be dated back to 1300-1000 Ma [59,60], amoebozoans and rhizharians appeared 750 Ma [61]. The fossil record of metazoans is still elusive prior to the Marinoan glaciation, although there are a number of reports [62,63]. However, according to molecular clock estimates, protostomian and deuterostomian animals may have diverged nearly 700 million years ago [64], if not earlier [65][66][67][68][69][70].…”

Neoproterozoic substrate condition vis-à-vis microbial mat structure and its implications: Sonia Sandstone, Rajasthan, India

“…However, sponge-like fossils have recently been reported from Namibia of ca. 760 Ma age (Brain et al, 2012) and, although controversial, structures interpreted as colonial multi-cellular organisms from Gabon are dated at ca. 2.1 Ga (Albani et al, 2010).…”