Attenborites

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Attenborites
Temporal range: Ediacaran, 550–541  Ma
Attenbaritis.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Genus:
Attenborites

Species:
A. janeae
Binomial name
Attenborites janeae
Mary L. Droser, 2018

Attenborites janeae is a species of Ediacaran organism from South Australia first described by a team led by Palaeontologist Mary L. Droser in 2018. The genus Attenborites was named after Sir David Attenborough. The bed in which the first 52 specimens from Australia of A. janeae was given the ARB designation "Alice's Restaurant Bed", and has been given that nickname for its abundance of rare taxa and newly described ones and is also a reference to Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song, "Alice's Restaurant". The new taxon is unique from all of these other taxa in the way that it has a much more irregular morphology than the other 52 specimens.

Contents

The bed

A team of palaeontologists from the University of California led by Mary L. Droser excavated the fossiliferous bed that Attenborites was described from in 2018. The bed contained a number of unique taxa that also appear in the White Sea of Russia, such as Andiva and Parvancorina. However, common fossils from Nilpena such as Aspidella and Funisia are noticeably absent or are only represented by one specimen. [1]

This bed gives more insight into being able to evaluate communities of the South Australian Ediacaran Biota under unique and exceptional preservational conditions, and to assess the potential extent to discover the taphonomic bias on the much coarser-grained fossiliferous beds at Nilpena. The fact that the bed contains a number of unique taxa also includes the opportunity to study another abundant fossil, Andiva, in the way that Palaeontologists can examine its growth and life from a single community of Ediacarans. [1]

Importance and interpretation

Attenborites is unique from all of these other taxa in the way that it has a much more irregular morphology and the inner-outer morphology of the 52 specimens. Although there is no direct evidence of A. janeae as living is a Pelagic environment, it should be taken note of as the preservational method suggests that a Pelagic lifestyle should at least be considered. [2] [1]

Description

Sir David Attenborough Weston Library Opening by John Cairns 20.3.15-139 David Attenborough.jpg
Sir David Attenborough

A. janeae represents a roughly oval-shaped form preserved in Negative Hyporelief that possess a number of internally preserved grooves and ridges (variable in number) that run parallel to the long axis which typically converges towards the end of its body. The length of each specimens ranges from 4.2–24 mm (0.165354-0.944882 inches). [2]

In real life, Attenborites would have looked much smoother than its fossils suggest, and would look like ellipsoidal forms possessing a relatively smooth surface, with the ridges found in fossil specimens being concluded that they were actually the result of taphonomic features being formed during deflation rather than them being actual anatomical and morphological features. [3]

Attenborites has also been described more informally as being "adorned with internal grooves and ridges, that gives it a superficial raisin-like appearance". [4]

Etymology

The bed was given the ARB designation for "Alice's Restaurant Bed", with the designation being a reference to Arlo Guthrie's song, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", specifically a reference to the line "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant". [1]

Mary L. Droser named the genus Attenborites after the English environmentalist Sir David Attenborough. [5] [2] [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Kimberella</i> Primitive Mollusc-like organism

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<i>Yorgia</i> Extinct proarticulate animal

Yorgia waggoneri is a discoid Ediacaran organism. It has a low, segmented body consisting of a short wide "head", no appendages, and a long body region, reaching a maximum length of 25 cm (9.8 in). It is classified within the extinct animal phylum Proarticulata.

<i>Ediacaria</i> Genus of cnidarians

Ediacaria is a fossil genus dating to the Ediacaran Period of the Neoproterozoic Era. Unlike most Ediacaran biota, which disappeared almost entirely from the fossil record at the end of the Period, Ediacaria fossils have been found dating from the Baikalian age of the Upper Riphean to 501 million years ago, well into the Cambrian Period. Ediacaria consists of concentric rough circles, radial lines between the circles and a central dome, with a diameter from 1 to 70 cm.

<i>Aspidella</i> Genus of Ediacaran animals

Aspidella is an Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil of uncertain affinity. It is known from the single species A. terranovica.

<i>Parvancorina</i> Genus of fossil arnimal

Parvancorina is a genus of shield-shaped bilaterally symmetrical fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran seafloor. It has some superficial similarities with the Cambrian trilobite-like arthropods.

<i>Ovatoscutum</i> Extinct species of enigmatic organism

Ovatoscutum concentricum is one of many enigmatic organisms known from the Ediacaran deposits of the Flinders Ranges, Australia, and the White Sea area in Russia, dating around 555 Ma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ediacaran biota</span> Life of the Ediacaran period

The Ediacaranbiota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period. These were enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms. Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The term "Ediacara biota" has received criticism from some scientists due to its alleged inconsistency, arbitrary exclusion of certain fossils, and inability to be precisely defined.

<i>Rugoconites</i> Extinct genus of invertebrates

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<i>Eoandromeda</i> Species of Ediacaran animal

Eoandromeda is an Ediacaran organism consisting of eight radial spiral arms, and known from two taphonomic modes: the standard Ediacara type preservation in Australia, and as carbonaceous compressions from the Doushantuo formation of China, where it is abundant.

Ediacaran type preservation relates to the dominant preservational mode in the Ediacaran period, where Ediacaran organisms were preserved as casts on the surface of microbial mats.

Somatohelix is a genus of curvilinear, spiralling tubular fossil, 2–7 mm wide and 3–14 cm long, from the Ediacaran deposites of the South Australia that was originally interpreted as a trace fossil; a larger amount of better-preserved material since facilitated its reconstruction as the remains of an organism of uncertain nature. Modern analogues of organisms with a helical constructional morphology are found not only in disparate Kingdoms, but also in multiple domains.

<i>Andiva</i> Vendian fossil

Andiva ivantsovi is a Vendian fossil, identified to be a bilaterian triploblastic animal in the Ediacaran phylum Proarticulata, known from the Winter Coast, White Sea, Russia. It was first discovered in 1977, and described as a new species in a new genus by Mikhail Fedonkin in 2002. It lived about 555 million years ago. Fossils of Andiva also occur in South Australia. All known fossils of Andiva are external molds.

Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which includes the former Ediacara Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the northern Flinders Ranges, in the state of South Australia. It is located about around 551 km (342 mi) north of the city of Adelaide, around 30 kilometres south-west of the town of Leigh Creek in the state's Far North.

<i>Pambikalbae hasenohrae</i> Extinct genus of hydrozoans

Pambikalbae is a monospecific genus known from the Ediacaran Period of South Australia. Its morphology resembles the morphology of colonial cnidarians, such as sea pens or siphonophores.

<i>Obamus</i>

Obamus coronatus is a torus-shaped Ediacaran fossil from the Rawnsley Quartzite of South Australia named in honor of former American President Barack Obama by the lab of Mary L. Droser.

<i>Ikaria wariootia</i> Early bilaterian organism fossil species

Ikaria wariootia is an early example of a wormlike, 2–7 mm-long (0.1–0.3 in) bilaterian organism. Its fossils are found in rocks of the Ediacara Member of South Australia that are estimated to be between 560 and 555 million years old. A representative of the Ediacaran biota, Ikaria lived during the Ediacaran period, roughly 15 million years before the Cambrian, when the Cambrian explosion occurred and where widespread fossil evidence of modern bilaterian taxa appear in the fossil record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary L. Droser</span> American paleontologist

Mary L. Droser is an American paleontologist. She is known for her work in South Australia, including the discovery of several fossils to which she had naming rights. As of 2023, she is part of a team preparing the nomination of the Flinders Ranges as a World Heritage Site.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Evans, S. D.; Dzaugis, P. W.; Droser, M. L.; Gehling, J. G. (2020). "You can get anything you want from Alice's Restaurant Bed: Exceptional preservation and an unusual fossil assemblage from a newly excavated bed (Ediacara Member, Nilpena, South Australia)". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 67 (6): 873–883. Bibcode:2020AuJES..67..873E. doi:10.1080/08120099.2018.1470110.
  2. 1 2 3 Droser, M. L.; Evans, S. D.; Dzaugis, P. W.; Hughes, E. B.; Gehling, J. G. (2020). "Attenborites janeae: A new enigmatic organism from the Ediacara Member (Rawnsley Quartzite), South Australia". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 67 (6): 915–921. Bibcode:2020AuJES..67..915D. doi:10.1080/08120099.2018.1495668. S2CID   133787909.
  3. McCandless, Heather Kaitlin (2022). First to Float: Investigating the Taphonomy and Morphology of Attenborites janae from the Nilpena Ediacara National Park (Thesis). UC Riverside.
  4. "Two New Ediacaran-Period Fossils Discovered in Australia | Sci.News". 26 June 2018.
  5. Horton, Alex (20 June 2018). "Scientists keep naming discoveries after Obama. This time it's a 550 million-year-old fossil". Washington Post. Washington D.C. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  6. "Two New Ediacaran-Period Fossils Discovered in Australia". Sci-News.com. 26 June 2018. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2022.