| Fedomia Temporal range: Late Ediacaran, | |
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| Simplified line drawing of a radial Fedomia specimen. Note star-shaped structures. Scale bar: 1cm | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Porifera (?) |
| Genus: | † Fedomia Serezhnikova & Ivantsov, 2007 |
| Species: | †F. mikhaili |
| Binomial name | |
| †Fedomia mikhaili Serezhnikova & Ivantsov, 2007 | |
Fedomia is a genus of organisms resembling sea sponges from the Ediacaran Period. It is monotypic, containing only the species Fedomia mikhaili, and was described from several specimens discovered in the White Sea area of Russia, in the Verkhovka Formation exposed along the Solza River. Fedomia was first described by Serezhnikova and Ivantsov in 2007, who compared it to Eiffelia from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale and therefore interpreted it as an organism of "sponge grade". [1] Antcliffe et al., who were reanalysing and disputing the affinities of this and other possible Precambrian sponges, found that Fedomia did not meet their criteria for being classified as a sponge and instead suggested it to be most likely a microbial colony or macro-algal sheath. [2]
The organisms look like sacs, often connected and occasionally radiating from a central point, and are millimetres to centimetres in length. Their surface is often patterned with a number of concave, star-shaped, spicule-like structures with six to eight points, with a diameter of 2–5 mm; these were probably flexible rather than rigid. [1]
Both the genus and species are named in honor of Russian paleontologist Mikhail A. Fedonkin. [1]
