Bomakellia Temporal range: | |
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B. kelleri trace fossil | |
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Reconstruction of B. kelleri, with a rangeomorph form | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | † Petalonamae |
Family: | † Charniidae |
Genus: | † Bomakellia Fedonkin, 1990 |
Species: | †B. kelleri |
Binomial name | |
†Bomakellia kelleri Fedonkin, 1985 [1] | |
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]