Bomakellia

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Bomakellia
Temporal range: 555  Ma
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Bomakellia colorsm.jpg
B. kelleri trace fossil
Bomakellia kelleri.JPG
Reconstruction of B. kelleri, with a rangeomorph form
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Petalonamae
Family: Charniidae
Genus: Bomakellia
Fedonkin, 1990
Species:
B. kelleri
Binomial name
Bomakellia kelleri
Fedonkin, 1985 [1]
An outdated reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri as a proto-arthropod, based on B. M. Waggoner's interpretation. Bomakellia kelleri e.JPG
An outdated reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri as a proto-arthropod, based on B. M. Waggoner's interpretation.

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 (in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia) from rocks dated 555 million years old. Bomakellia was originally interpreted as an early arthropod, [1] with a study by B. M. Waggoner concluding that the organism was a primitive anomalocarid and erroneously identifying the ridges of its supposed cephalon as eyes, making Bomakellia the oldest known animal with vision. [2] However, this hypothesis has not reached acceptance, nor acknowledgement. [3] [4]

A closer examination of the specimen has identified a tetraradial symmetry in the body, and a frond-like morphology which closely resembles that of Rangea – the current interpretation of Bomakellia is as a rangeomorph frond, which could possibly mean a close relation to the Chinese Paracharnia . [5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 M. A. Fedonkin (1985). "Systematic Description of Vendian Metazoa". Vendian System: Historical–Geological and Paleontological Foundation. 1: Paleontology. Moscow: Nauka: 70–106.
  2. B. M. Waggoner (1996). "Phylogenic Hypotheses of the Relationships of Arthropods to Precambrian and Cambrian Problematic Fossil Taxa". Systematic Biology . 45 (2). Systematic Biology, Vol. 45, No. 2: 280–293. doi: 10.2307/2413615 . JSTOR   2413615.
  3. McMenamin, Mark A. S. (1998). The Garden of Ediacara. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   978-0-231-10559-0.
  4. Fryer, G. (1999). "Cambrian animals: evolutionary curiosities or the crucible of creation?". Hydrobiologia. 403: 1–11. doi:10.1023/A:1003799411987. S2CID   21020029.
  5. Dzik, J. (2002). "Possible ctenophoran affinities of the precambrian "sea-pen" Rangea". Journal of Morphology. 252 (3): 315–334. doi:10.1002/jmor.1108. PMID   11948678. S2CID   22844283.