Dawn of complex animal food webs: A new predatory anthozoan (Cnidaria) from Cambrian

Graphical abstract

Cnidarians diverged very early in animal evolution; therefore, investigations of the morphology and trophic levels of early fossil cnidarians may provide critical insights into the evolution of metazoans and the origin of modern marine food webs. However, there has been a lack of unambiguous anthozoan cnidarians from Ediacaran assemblages, and undoubted anthozoans from the Cambrian radiation of metazoans are very rare and lacking in ecological evidence. Here, we report a new polypoid cnidarian, Nailiana elegans gen.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100195

Citation:
Ou Q., Shu D., Zhang Z., et al. (2021). Dawn of complex animal food webs: A new predatory anthozoan (Cnidaria) from Cambrian. The Innovation. 3(1),100195.