Decoding the Ediacaran Enigma

摘要

Fossils and Egyptian hieroglyphs share daunting similarities: Both consist of arcane geometries, glyphs in rock that conceal deeper meanings from the rude enquirer, and are capable of false translation. Remember Shelley's fakery "And on the pedestal the words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works ye Mighty and despair!" and take note of recent fossil feuds. To read the fossil runes correctly, the paleontologist craves the stimulus of fresh fossil finds, channeled by insightful methodology to catalyze productive thought. The recent discovery of remarkably well-preserved, three-dimensional Ediacaran fossils in Newfoundland reported by Narbonne on page 1141 of this issue may provide such a stimulus. The new fossil find raisesthe question of whether the study of the life history and growth plan of these fossil an-imals could provide a Rosetta stone for decoding Ediacaran animal evolution.