Thanks to a new analysis of one of the oldest known organisms, scientists learned of a highly complex method of reproduction.
According to BBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Nature detailed two distinct ways Fractofusus, a 565 million year old marine organism, reproduced. Fractofusus was a type of rangeomorph that was first formally detailed in 2007, going colloquially as "the Spindle" previously.
"Rangeomorphs don't look like anything else in the fossil record, which is why they're such a mystery," study lead author Emily Mitchell, a postdoctoral researcher of earth science at the University of Cambridge, said in a press release. "But we've developed a whole new way of looking at them, which has helped us understand them a lot better - most interestingly, how they reproduced."
With a high-res GPS device, Mitchell and her colleagues noticed evidence of two reproduction methods when examining the Fractofusus fossil. One was a way of multiplying akin to the spider and strawberry plants, BBC News noted. The other was a bit more traditional, involving the production of seeds.
Aside from its dual-reproductive abilities, the Fractofusus is itself a mysterious organism.
"It certainly wasn't a plant because it couldn't photosynthesize - there was no light [that deep in the ocean]," Mitchell told BBC News. "Fractofusus doesn't exhibit any of the features you associate with an animals. It belonged to a now-extinct eukaryotic group known as rangeomorphs.
"But how rangeomorphs relate to animals and the origins of animals is incredibly difficult to work out."
