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Charnia is an extinct genus of frond-like lifeforms belonging to the Ediacaran biota with segmented, leaf-like ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture. The genus Charnia was named for Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England, where the first fossilised specimen was found. Charnia is significant because it was the first Precambrian fossil to be recognized as such.
A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the large leaves of cycads, as well as palms (Arecaceae) and various other flowering plants, such as mimosa or sumac. "Frond" is commonly used to identify a large, compound leaf, but if the term is used botanically to refer to the leaves of ferns and algae it may be applied to smaller and undivided leaves.
The rangeomorphs are a form taxon of frondose Ediacaran fossils that are united by a similarity to Rangea. Some researchers, such as Pflug and Narbonne, suggest that a natural taxon Rangeomorpha may include all similar-looking fossils. Rangeomorphs appear to have had an effective reproductive strategy, based on analysis of the distribution pattern of Fractofusus misrai, which consisted of sending out a waterborne asexual propagule to a distant area, and then spreading rapidly from there, just as plants today spread by stolons or runners.
Spriggina is a genus of early animals whose relationship to living animals is unclear. Fossils of Spriggina are known from the late Ediacaran period in what is now South Australia. Spriggina floundersi is the official fossil emblem of South Australia; it has been found nowhere else.
Vendobionts or Vendozoans (Vendobionta) are a proposed very high-level, extinct clade of benthic organisms that made up of the majority of the organisms that were part of the Ediacaran biota. It is a hypothetical group and at the same time, it would be the oldest of the animals that populated the Earth about 580 million years ago, in the Ediacaran period. They became extinct shortly after the so-called Cambrian explosion, with the introduction of fauna forming groups more recognizably related to modern animals. It is very likely that the whole Ediacaran biota is not a monophyletic clade and not every genus placed in its subtaxa is an animal.
Hiemalora is a fossil of the Ediacaran biota, reaching around 3 cm in diameter, which superficially resembles a sea anemone. The genus has a sack-like body with faint radiating lines originally interpreted as tentacles, but discovery of a frond-like structure seemingly attached to some Heimalora has added weight to a competing interpretation: that it represents the holdfast of a larger organism.
Rangea is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs.
Aspidella is an Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil of uncertain affinity. It is known from the single species A. terranovica.
Bomakellia kelleri is a species of poorly understood Ediacaran fossil organism represented by only one specimen discovered in the Ust'-Pinega Formation of the Syuzma River from rocks dated 555 million years old. Bomakellia was originally interpreted as an early Arthropod. A study by B. M. Waggoner even concluded that the organism was a primitive anomalocarid and erroneously identified the ridges of supposed Cephalon as being eyes making Bomakellia the oldest known animal with vision. But this hypothesis has not reached acceptance, nor acknowledgement.
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.
Beothukis mistakensis is a rare fossil frond-like member of the Rangeomorpha, described from the Ediacaran of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. It had been identified since 1992, referred in papers as a "spatulate frond" or "flat recliner", but not formally described until 2009. The original fossils from which the genus has been described are still in situ, but replicas are preserved at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Claims of a stem have been contentious, and based largely on structures that have subsequently been determined to be erosional scours, and is so considered to be a recliner
The Fermeuse Formation is a fossil-bearing Ediacaran geologic formation in Newfoundland.
Parviscopa is a genus of frondose forms characterized in 2008 based on specimens from Newfoundland, Canada. Parviscopa is a member of the Ediacaran biota, and is more specifically part of the Avalon type assemblage, which is from the older part of the Ediacaran and is characterized by deep water deposits.
Frondosity is the property of an organism that normally flourishes with fronds or leaf-like structures.
Noffkarkys is a genus of problematic fossil first found in the Ediacaran Grant Bluff Formation of Central Mount Stuart, Northern Territory, Australia, and another prostrate frond-like fossil. The genus was named in honor of Nora Noffke.
Trepassia is a 579 million-year-old fossil of Ediacaran rangeomorph. It was first discovered by Guy M. Narbonne, a professor at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and colleagues in 2009. Three years later, Martin D. Brasier added additional description to Trepassia. The generic name is taken from the French word, trépassés, which translates to "those that have departed forever" and honors the Trepassey community in Newfoundland. It was originally described as Charnia wardi; it was referred under this synonym in a 2016 paper.
Frondophyllas is an extinct, monotypic animal genus in the clade Rangeomorpha. It was found at the Mistaken Point on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada in 2008 by Bamforth and Anderson. The single species is Frondophyllas grandis and as of 2021 only two specimens have been discovered. Both specimens are incomplete, but one extends to one meter long, making it one of the largest Ediacaran macrofossils. The species name: grandis, comes from its size, and the genus name: Frondophyllas means "frond with leaves". The organism has a base structure with numerous fronds attached to it. It is the only Ediacaran organism to have distinct leaflets. Evidence suggests that F. grandis may have been tethered to the seafloor and used these leaflets to "filter feed", or live off nutrients provided by a current. One of the reasons fossils of this species are so rare is because it was a soft-bodied organism. It is believed that F. grandis was preserved because it was caught beneath quickly solidifying volcanic ash. Many of the Mistaken Point fossils were preserved this way.
Hadrynichorde is a frondose organism from the Ediacaran period discovered in Newfoundland, Canada. It is a sessile, benthic marine organism. resembling modern sea whips.
Hapsidophyllas is a rare Ediacaran rangeomorph fossil found at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. It was first identified by Emily Bamforth and Guy Narbonne in 2009. Its name comes from the Greek words for “a network of leaves.” Because its characteristic flexible leaflet structure is dissimilar to other known rangeomorphs, Bamforth and Narbonne describe it as a new rangeomorph form, called hapsidophyllid. The only other known hapsidophyllid is the Ediacaran frond Frondophyllas grandis, which shares the network-like configuration of leaflets seen in Hapsidophyllas. Currently, the Hapsidophyllas flexibilis holotype resides in its type locality in the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, and a cast of the specimen is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.
Gigarimaneta samsoni is a species of epifaunal Petalonamid from the Ediacaran deposits of the Canadian Mistaken Point Formation. G. samsoni grew is a similar manner to Fractofusus and/or Beothukis and grew slightly into the substrate.
References
- 1 2 3 4 Narbonne, G. M.; Laflamme, M.; Greentree, C.; Trusler, P. (2009). "Reconstructing a Lost World: Ediacaran Rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland". Journal of Paleontology. 83 (4): 503. doi:10.1666/08-072R1.1.
- ↑ Brasier, M. D.; Liu, A. G.; Menon, L.; Matthews, J. J.; McIlroy, D.; Wacey, D. (2013). "Explaining the exceptional preservation of Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland: A hydraulic model". Precambrian Research. 231: 122. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2013.03.013.
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