ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2016
Tiny vampires in ancient seas: evidence for predation via perforation in fossils from the 780-740 million-year-old Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, USA.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- A diverse Palaeoproterozoic microbial ecosystem implies early eukaryogenesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Proterozoic microfossils continue to provide new insights into the rise of complex eukaryotic life.Royal Society open science · 2024Review
- Amoebozoan testate amoebae illuminate the diversity of heterotrophs and the complexity of ecosystems throughout geological time.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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- Testate amoebae (Arcellinida, Amoebozoa) community diversity in New England bogs and fens assessed through lineage-specific amplicon sequencing.European journal of protistology · 2024Article
- Strong evidence for a weakly oxygenated ocean-atmosphere system during the Proterozoic.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview.Astrobiology · 2021Review
- Evidences of the Oldest Trophic Interactions in the Riphean Biota (Lakhanda Lagerstätte, Southeastern Siberia).Doklady biological sciences : proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Biological sciences sections · 2021Article
- The origin of phagocytosis in Earth history.Interface focus · 2020Review
- Free and kerogen-bound biomarkers from late Tonian sedimentary rocks record abundant eukaryotes in mid-Neoproterozoic marine communities.Geobiology · 2020Article
- Fungal evolution: major ecological adaptations and evolutionary transitions.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2019Review
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- Controlled hydroxyapatite biomineralization in an ~810 million-year-old unicellular eukaryote.Science advances · 2017Article
- Article
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1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
One explanation for the Early Neoproterozoic expansion of eukaryotes is the appearance of eukaryovorous predators-i.e. protists that preyed on other protists. Evidence for eukaryovory at this time, however, is indirect, based on inferences from character state reconstructions and molecular clocks, and on the presence of possible defensive structures in some protistan fossils. Here I describe 0.1-3.4 µm circular holes in seven species of organic-walled microfossils from the 780-740 million-year-old Chuar Group, Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA, that are similar to those formed today by predatory protists that perforate the walls of their prey to consume the contents inside. Although best known in the vampyrellid amoebae, this 'vampire-like' behaviour is widespread among eukaryotes, making it difficult to infer confidently the identity of the predator. Nonetheless, the identity of the prey is clear: some-and perhaps all-of the fossils are eukaryotes. These holes thus provide the oldest direct evidence for predation on eukaryotes. Larger circular and half-moon-shaped holes in vase-shaped microfossils from the upper part of the unit may also be the work of 'tiny vampires', suggesting a diversity of eukaryovorous predators lived in the ancient Chuar sea.
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