Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31350398›Full record

ArticleNature communications2019

Spiculogenesis and biomineralization in early sponge animals.

Qing Tang, Bin Wan, Xunlai Yuan, A D Muscente, Shuhai Xiao

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Chemical characterization of CProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  3. Ecosystem relocation on Snowball Earth: Polar-alpine ancestry of the extant surface biosphere?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  4. Silactins and Structural Diversity of Biosilica in Sponges.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Ediacaran sponges, animal biomineralization, and skeletal reefs.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Qing TangDepartment of Geosciences and Global Change Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7149-6291
Bin WanState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008, Nanjing, China.
Xunlai YuanState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008, Nanjing, China.
A D MuscenteDepartment of Geological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Shuhai XiaoDepartment of Geosciences and Global Change Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA. xiao@vt.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4655-2663
Chinese Academy of Sciences · CNVirginia Tech · USThe University of Texas at Austin · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Most sponges have biomineralized spicules. Molecular clocks indicate sponge classes diverged in the Cryogenian, but the oldest spicules are Cambrian in age. Therefore, sponges either evolved spiculogenesis long after their divergences or Precambrian spicules were not amenable to fossilization. The former hypothesis predicts independent origins of spicules among sponge classes and presence of transitional forms with weakly biomineralized spicules, but this prediction has not been tested using paleontological data. Here, we report an early Cambrian sponge that, like several other early Paleozoic sponges, had weakly biomineralized and hexactine-based siliceous spicules with large axial filaments and high organic proportions. This material, along with Ediacaran microfossils containing putative non-biomineralized axial filaments, suggests that Precambrian sponges may have had weakly biomineralized spicules or lacked them altogether, hence their poor record. This work provides a new search image for Precambrian sponge fossils, which are critical to resolving the origin of sponge spiculogenesis and biomineralization.

Indexed as

AnimalsBiomineralizationFossilsPaleontologyPhylogenyPoriferaSilicon DioxideSilicon Dioxide

Identifiers

PMID31350398
PMCPMC6659672
OpenAlexW2963099815

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.