[LINK] "Newfoundland fossil may show earliest reproduction in complex organism"

[rfmcdonald]

The CBC reports on the discovery in Newfoundland of fossils a half-billion years old providing hints about how reproduction first occurred among complex organisms.

A team led by researchers from England's University of Cambridge found the fossils in the Trinity Bay North area. The new fossils were estimated to be 565 million years old and belonged to Fractofusus, a type of rangeomorph. Rangemorphs, marine organisms that looked a bit like ferns, were some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth. Earlier life forms were mostly single-celled and reproduced simply by dividing.

The Fractofusus fossils are clustered together in a way that suggests there are three generations of organisms in a cluster — larger, older ones surrounded by younger, smaller ones.

Jack Matthews of Oxford University has been studying rocks in Newfoundland for about eight years. He was part of the team that found the fossils.

"It [the clustering] suggests that these organisms could reproduce rapidly via what's known as asexual reproduction," said Matthews.

The pattern strongly resembles clustering observed in modern plants such as strawberries, where smaller offspring grow from "runners" sent out by the older generation.