Chinese researchers have discovered exceptionally well-preserved bryozoan fossils that provide the first definitive mineralized skeletal evidence for the group's origin in the Early Cambrian, pushing its fossil record back by at least 50 million years.
The findings, made by a research team from the country's Northwest University, were published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The fossils were unearthed from the Early Cambrian Xiannvdong Formation in Hanzhong City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The specimens are exceptionally preserved, retaining both mineralized skeletal structures and soft tissues.
Bryozoans are a major group of colonial aquatic invertebrates that today inhabit marine environments worldwide. Although researchers have long hypothesized that bryozoan ancestors existed during the Cambrian Period, conclusive fossil evidence has been lacking due to the organisms' tiny size and the difficulty of recognizing their fossils.
The newly discovered fossils preserve soft-tissue features, including membranous sacs and ring septa, as well as bryozoan skeletal structures such as zooecia and acanthostyles.
To examine the specimens, the research team employed a range of analytical methods, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray computed tomography.
Using the new fossil evidence, the researchers constructed a matrix comprising 50 morphological characteristics from 18 representative extant and fossil bryozoan genera. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the Cambrian fossils belong to the class Stenolaemata within the phylum Bryozoa.
The discovery pushes the fossil record of mineralized bryozoans back from the Ordovician Period to the Early Cambrian, extending it by at least 50 million years.
New fossils confirm Early Cambrian origin of bryozoans
The newly-established World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) marks a major milestone in AI development and a significant step toward global AI governance, international delegates said on Friday.
Twenty-nine countries on Thursday signed an agreement in Shanghai on establishing WAICO, an independent intergovernmental international organization headquartered in Shanghai.
The organization aims to promote international cooperation and global governance on AI, ensuring that AI is beneficial, safe and fair, thereby promoting its healthy and orderly development to benefit all humanity.
"I think this organization reinforces the need for multilateral cooperation. So you have 29 countries that have come together. I think yesterday's developments underline the importance of the capacity-building that countries around the world are facing an AI divide. There are some countries that do not have the talent, the datasets, the computer infrastructure, the access to the right models, and therefore efforts such as these can help bridge the AI divide," said UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill.
Alaa Abdulaal, chief of Digital Economy Intelligence at the Digital Cooperation Organization, also hailed the launch, saying that cooperation is vital to ensure that no country is structurally excluded from the evolving digital landscape.
"Any initiative that is targeted for opening dialogues and innovation and conversation between countries to make sure that everyone is participating in the digital economy is a huge milestone. Whenever we have cooperation, whenever we have different countries, different representation, making sure that no one is left outside AI, it is a huge achievement, definitely," said Abdulaal.
World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization marks milestone in AI development: int'l delegates
