ArticleBMC biology2013
Demecology in the Cambrian: synchronized molting in arthropods from the Burgess Shale.
Article in BMC biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Potential Causes of Shedding Aggregations in Prairie Rattlesnakes.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Gregarious behaviour in Carboniferous cyclidan crustaceans.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Article
- Molting in early Cambrian armored lobopodians.Communications biology · 2024Article
- The problematic Cambrian arthropodRoyal Society open science · 2022Article
- Extreme multisegmentation in a giant bivalved arthropod from the Cambrian Burgess Shale.iScience · 2022Article
- A juvenile-rich palaeocommunity of the lower Cambrian Chengjiang biota sheds light on palaeo-boom or palaeo-bust environments.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Synchronized moulting behaviour in trilobites from the Cambrian Series 2 of South China.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Collective behaviour in 480-million-year-old trilobite arthropods from Morocco.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- A new hurdiid radiodont from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Ecdysis in a stem-group euarthropod from the early Cambrian of China.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Recognising moulting behaviour in trilobites by examining morphology, development and preservation: Comment on Błażejowski et al. 2015.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe Burgess Shale is well known for its preservation of a diverse soft-bodied biota dating from the Cambrian period (Series 3, Stage 5). While previous paleoecological studies have focused on particular species (autecology) or entire paleocommunities (synecology), studies on the ecology of populations (demecology) of Burgess Shale organisms have remained mainly anecdotal.
resultsHere, we present evidence for mass molting events in two unrelated arthropods from the Burgess Shale Walcott Quarry, Canadaspis perfecta and a megacheiran referred to as Alalcomenaeus sp.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that the triggers for such supposed synchronized molting appeared early on during the Cambrian radiation, and synchronized molting in the Cambrian may have had similar functions in the past as it does today. In addition, the finding of numerous juvenile Alalcomenaeus sp. molts associated with the putative alga Dictyophycus suggests a possible nursery habitat. In this nursery habitat a population of this animal might have found a more protected environment in which to spend critical developmental phases, as do many modern species today.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.