Ecdysozoan-like sclerites among Ediacaran microfossils

We report the occurrence of organically preserved microfossils from the subsurface Ediacaran strata overlying the
East European Platform in Poland, in the form of sclerites
and cuticle fragments of larger organisms. They are morphologically similar to those known from Cambrian strata
and associated with various metazoan fossils of recognized
phyla. The Ediacaran age of the microfossils is evident
from the stratigraphic position below the base of the Cambrian System and above the isotopically dated tuff layers at
c. 551±4 Ma. Within this strata interval, other characteristic Ediacaran microorganisms co-occur such as cyanobacteria, vendotaenids, microalgae, Ceratophyton, Valkyria and
macroscopic annelidan Sabellidites. The recent contributions
of organic sclerites in revealing the scope of the Cambrian
explosion are therefore also potentially extendable back to
the Ediacaran Period when animals first appear in the fossil
record,