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About the Cover
Cover: Kimberella is the most convincing bilaterian animal from the late Neoproterozoic Ediacaran Fauna. Kimberella has a ventral foot surrounded by a crenulated frill (preserved here only on the right side, but originally surrounding the animal) and may have been capped by a shell (the edge of which is shown by the faint line just beyond the frill). The fold in the center of the specimen is caused by decay and contraction of the muscular foot during compaction of the sediment. Parallel scratch marks often found with Kimberella probably represent feeding traces from a rasping mouth. This suggests that Kimberella may have phylogenetic affinities to early Mollusca. This specimen is from 550 million year old rocks along the coast of the White Sea in northern Russia. Photograph by Douglas H. Erwin, Smithsonian Institution. For further details, see article by D. H. Erwin and E. H. Davidson, in this issue Development 129, 3021-3032.
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