Number of distinctive cell types in most highly differentiated pre-Ediacaran eukaryote (before 635–542 Mya)

Range ≥6 distinctive cell types
Organism Valkyria spp.
Reference Butterfield NJ, Macroevolution and macroecology through deep time, Paleontology, Volume 50, Issue 1 January 2007 Pages 41–55, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00613.x link p.43 right column 2nd paragraph
Primary Source Butterfield et al., Paleobiology of the Neoproterozoic Svanbergfjellet Formation, Spitsbergen, Lethaia, Volume 27, Issue 1 March 1994 Page 76, DOI: 10.1111/j.1502-3931.1994.tb01558.x link
Comments P.43 right column 2nd paragraph: "Pre-Ediacaran ‘problematica’ also document various grades of eukaryotic multicellularity, from the simple cellular networks ⁄ coenobia of Eosaccharomyces (c. 1000 Ma, see Knoll et al. 2006) and Palaeastrum (c. 750 Ma, primary source) to the large septate filaments of certain Grypania (Kumar 1995) and the semicoenocytic filamentvesicle complex comprising early Neoproterozoic Cheilofilum (Butterfield 2005b). Multicellular development of a conspicuously more complex grade is seen in early Neoproterozoic Tappania where a large central vesicle gives rise to a corona of multicellular, secondarily anastomosing filaments (with striking similarities to the hyphal fusion of higher fungi), as well as a morphologically distinct Germinosphaera-phase (Butterfield 2005a, Knoll et al. 2006). The most highly differentiated pre-Ediacaran eukaryote is middle Neoproterozoic Valkyria, which preserves at least six distinctive cell types (primary source)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 113588