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An early Cambrian ecdysozoan with a terminal mouth but no anus

Yunhuan Liu, Huaqiao Zhang, Shuhai Xiao, Tiequan Shao, Baichuan Duan
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.04.283960
Yunhuan Liu
1School of Earth Science and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
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Huaqiao Zhang
2State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
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  • For correspondence: hqzhang@nigpas.ac.cn xiao@vt.edu
Shuhai Xiao
3Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
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  • For correspondence: hqzhang@nigpas.ac.cn xiao@vt.edu
Tiequan Shao
1School of Earth Science and Resources, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
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Baichuan Duan
4Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogeny, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resource, Qingdao 266061,China
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ABSTRACT

The ecdysozoans are the most diverse animal group on Earth1, 2. Molecular clock studies indicate that the ecdysozoans may have diverged and diversified in the Ediacaran Period3, 4, but unambiguous ecdysozoan fossils first appear in the earliest Cambrian and are limited to cycloneuralians5–7. Here we report new material of the early Cambrian microscopic animal Saccorhytus coronarius, which was previously interpreted as a deuterostome8. Saccorhytus coronarius is reconstructed as a millimetric and ellipsoidal meiobenthic animal with a spinose armor and an anterior mouth but no anus. Purported pharyngeal gills in support of the deuterostome hypothesis8 are shown to be taphonomic artifacts. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that Saccorhytus coronarius belongs to the total-group Ecdysozoa, highlighting the morphological and ecological diversity of early Cambrian ecdysozoans.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted September 06, 2020.
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An early Cambrian ecdysozoan with a terminal mouth but no anus
Yunhuan Liu, Huaqiao Zhang, Shuhai Xiao, Tiequan Shao, Baichuan Duan
bioRxiv 2020.09.04.283960; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.04.283960
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An early Cambrian ecdysozoan with a terminal mouth but no anus
Yunhuan Liu, Huaqiao Zhang, Shuhai Xiao, Tiequan Shao, Baichuan Duan
bioRxiv 2020.09.04.283960; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.04.283960

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