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Palaeontology

Wringing out the oldest sponges

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Evidence from biomarkers and molecular clocks points to the existence of sponges tens of millions of years before their earliest fossil remains. Fossils from South Australia may narrow that gap.

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Figure 1: The earliest probable sponges include the Ediacaran Paleophragmodictya (SAM P32352A-F), found in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.

MARC LAFLAMME

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  1. Marc Laflamme is in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA. marc.laflamme@yale.edu,

    Marc Laflamme

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  1. Marc Laflamme
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Laflamme, M. Wringing out the oldest sponges. Nature Geosci 3, 597–598 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo945

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