Precambrian Sponges with Cellular Structures

TLDR

Sponge remains have been identified in the Early Vendian Doushantuo phosphate deposit in central Guizhou, China, dating to about 580 million years ago. The fossils show siliceous, monaxonal spicules, preserved soft tissues, and diverse larval forms—including a parenchymella‑type and a possible amphiblastula—indicating that demosponges and possibly calcareous sponges existed 40–50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion.

Abstract

Sponge remains have been identified in the Early Vendian Doushantuo phosphate deposit in central Guizhou (South China), which has an age of ∼580 million years ago. Their skeletons consist of siliceous, monaxonal spicules. All are referred to as the Porifera, class Demospongiae. Preserved soft tissues include the epidermis, porocytes, amoebocytes, sclerocytes, and spongocoel. Among thousands of metazoan embryos is a parenchymella-type of sponge larvae having a shoe-shaped morphology and dense peripheral flagella. The presence of possible amphiblastula larva suggests that the calcareous sponges may have an extended history in the Late Precambrian. The fauna indicates that animals lived 40 to 50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion.