rmal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">rning: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">The Neoproterozoic Doushantuo Lagerstrning: 1.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">ärning: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">tte of refix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />South China preserves an exceptional record of eukaryotic life relevant to the Ediacaran radiation of animals. The reliable fossil data reveal that multicellular algae and giant process-bearing acritarchs radiated in the Doushantuo epoch. A number of Doushantuo fossils interpreted as animal remains, including animal embryos, sponges, bilaterians, cnidarians (hydrozoans, scyphozoans, anthozoans), hyoliths and pogonophoran tubes, have been documented in phosporites, cherts, and shales, but their phylogenetic interpretation requires further scrutiny. Among these potential animals, sub millimeter-sized tubes assigned to the genus rmal">Sinocyclocyclicus display a suite of characters found in cnidarians and probably provide a reasonable candidate for stem-group cnidarians. Several macroscopic carbonaceous compressions from the Miaohe shales named as rmal">Calyptrinastriata were tentatively interpreted as animal tubes, because they bear regularly spaced, transverse organic banrning: 1.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">ds that are less easily reconciled with known algal growth models. Another taxon, rmal">Protoconitesminor, is also from the Miaohe shales and was previously compared with some Cambrian small shelly fossils in its conical shape, but it bears no diagnositic features, such as mineralized skeleton or annulations, and its simple morphology allows an alternative algal interpretation. Both micro-and macroscopic sponge remains were reported from shales or phosphorites, but the evidence is weak if the authors evaluate these fossils using criteria established from younger sponge fossils.
