Using 3D digital models, researchers report that Cloudina, once purported to be architects of Earth's first animal reefs, were soft organisms that drifted into the crevices of ancient microbial constructions, a finding suggesting that reef building likely emerged around 20 million years later than thought; researchers produced the reconstructions with an automatic serial grinding and imaging instrument, which enables the study of samples that cannot be imaged using traditional tomographic techniques, such as X-ray computed tomography.
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Article #17-19911: "Multiscale approach reveals that Cloudina aggregates are detritus and not in situ reef constructions," by Akshay Mehra and Adam Maloof.
MEDIA CONTACT: Akshay K. Mehra, Princeton University, NJ; tel: 203-554-2920; e-mail: akmehra@princeton.edu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences