A problematic animal fossil from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation, South China—A reply

Qing Tang; Jie Hu; Guwei Xie; Xunlai Yuan; Bin Wan; Chuanming Zhou; Xu Dong; Guohua Cao; Bruce S. Lieberman; Sally P. Leys; Shuhai Xiao

doi:10.1017/jpa.2019.69

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28 January 2020 A problematic animal fossil from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation, South China—A reply

Qing Tang, Jie Hu, Guwei Xie, Xunlai Yuan, Bin Wan, Chuanming Zhou, Xu Dong, Guohua Cao, Bruce S. Lieberman, Sally P. Leys, Shuhai Xiao

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J. of Paleontology, 93(6):1279-1282 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2019.69

Abstract

We recently reported Cambrowania ovata Tang and Xiao in Tang et al., 2019, from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation in South China and interpreted it as a problematic animal fossil, possibly related to either sponges or bivalved arthropods (Tang et al., 2019). Slater and Budd (2019) contested our taxonomic identification and phylogenetic interpretation; instead, they claimed that Cambrowania ovata is a large acritarch referable to morphotaxon LeiosphaeridiaEisenack, 1958, and thus is not an animal. Here we refute their criticisms, clarify the differences between Cambrowania and Leiosphaeridia and other acritarchs, and reiterate why an animal affinity for Cambrowania cannot be ruled out.

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Qing Tang, Jie Hu, Guwei Xie, Xunlai Yuan, Bin Wan, Chuanming Zhou, Xu Dong, Guohua Cao, Bruce S. Lieberman, Sally P. Leys, and Shuhai Xiao "A problematic animal fossil from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation, South China—A reply," Journal of Paleontology 93(6), 1279-1282, (28 January 2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2019.69

Accepted: 11 August 2019; Published: 28 January 2020

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