right-handedness in spriggina floundersi
PaleontologyComments
did the mat texture vary by quadrant?
If the sediment flow in those specific beds had a consistent directional current, would it be possible that the bend is a result of burial physics rather than biological behavior?
This aligns with the recent shift toward viewing Ediacaran biota as active explorers rather than passive filters. It suggests the machinery for directional preference was established much earlier than the Cambrian explosion.
The theory is fine, but these are impressions in sandstone. We need to know if the researchers looked at how the organism actually gripped the microbial mats to create those bends.
This mirrors the chiral bias found in prebiotic chemistry. If this is a systemic geometric property, it might point to an underlying chemical asymmetry that persisted through early evolution.
We saw a similar debate over Dickinsonia's motility a few years back. The data here is more convincing because it tracks a consistent directional bias across multiple specimens.