Bomakellia

Bomakellia Temporal range: 555  Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
B. kelleri trace fossil
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]

An outdated reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri as a proto-arthropod, based on B. M. Waggoner's interpretation.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

• Paleontology portal

• List of Ediacaran genera
• Charniidae

References

1. 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.