Dickinsonia is a genus of extinct organism, most likely an animal, that lived during the late Ediacaran period in what is now Australia, China, Russia, and Ukraine. It is one of the best known members of the Ediacaran biota. The individual Dickinsonia typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval. Its affinities are presently unknown; its mode of growth has been considered consistent with a stem-group bilaterian affinity, though various other affinities have been proposed. It lived during the late Ediacaran. The discovery of cholesterol molecules in fossils of Dickinsonia lends support to the idea that Dickinsonia was an animal, though these results have been questioned.
Kimberella is an extinct genus of bilaterian known only from rocks of the Ediacaran period. The slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt in a manner similar to the gastropods, although its affinity with this group is contentious.
Tribrachidium heraldicum is a tri-radially symmetric fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran (Vendian) seas. In life, it was hemispherical in form. T. heraldicum is the best known member of the extinct group Trilobozoa.
Palaeonemertea is a class of primitive nemertean worm. It may be para- or polyphyletic, consisting of three to five clades and totalling about 100 species.
Yorgia waggoneri is a discoid Ediacaran organism. It has a low, segmented body consisting of a short wide "head", no appendages, and a long body region, reaching a maximum length of 25 cm (9.8 in). It is classified within the extinct animal phylum Proarticulata.
Rangea is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs.
Trilobozoa is a phylum of extinct, sessile animals that were originally classified into the Cnidaria. The basic body plan of trilobozoans is often a triradial or radial sphere-shaped form with lobes radiating from its centre. Fossils of trilobozoans are restricted to marine strata of the Late Ediacaran period.
Proarticulata is a proposed phylum of extinct, near-bilaterally symmetrical animals known from fossils found in the Ediacaran (Vendian) marine deposits, and dates to approximately 567 to 550 million years ago. The name comes from the Greek προ = "before" and Articulata, i.e. prior to animals with true segmentation such as annelids and arthropods. This phylum was established by Mikhail A. Fedonkin in 1985 for such animals as Dickinsonia, Vendia, Cephalonega, Praecambridium and currently many other Proarticulata are described.
Vendiamorpha is a class of extinct animals within the Ediacaran phylum Proarticulata.
Isomer is an element of transverse body articulation of the bilateral fossil animals of the Phylum Proarticulata from the Ediacaran (Vendian) period. This term has been proposed by Andrey Yu. Ivantsov, a Russian paleontologist from the Laboratory of the Precambrian organisms, Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Protechiurus edmondsi is a species of fossil animal from the Ediacaran Nama group of Namibia. It was initially interpreted as an echiurid worm. It has been placed as a "vendobiont", on the hypothesis that the Edicarian fauna represent a distinct phylum. It has also been suggested that it may be an ecdysozoan.
Solza margarita is an extinct animal of uncertain phylogeny which lived about 555 mya in the Ediacaran period.
The Ilek Formation is a Lower Cretaceous geologic formation in Western Siberia. Many different fossils have been recovered from the formation. It overlies the Late Jurassic Tyazhin Formation and underlies the Albian Kiya Formation.
Studenicia is a genus of Ediacaran fauna which is approximately 635-545 million years old. All Ediacaran fauna are considered to be invertebrate Metazoans or multicellular organisms with no backbone.
Beltanelliformis is a genus of discoid fossil from the Ediacaran period containing the two species B. brunsae and B. minutae, sometimes ascribed to the Ediacaran Biota. The chemical signature obtained from organically preserved specimens points to a cyanobacterial affinity. Depending on its preservation, it is sometimes referred to as Nemiana or Beltanelloides.
The petalonamids (Petalonamae) are an extinct group of archaic animals typical of the Ediacaran biota, also called frondomorphs, dating from approximately 635 million years ago to 516 million years ago. They are benthic and motionless animals, that have the shape of leaves, fronds (frondomorphic), feathers or spindles and were initially considered algae, octocorals or sea pens. It is now believed that there are no living descendants of the group, which shares a probable relation to the Ediacaran animals known as Vendozoans.
Archaeaspinus fedonkini is an extinct proarticulatan organism from the Late Precambrian (Ediacaran) period.
Ivan Illarionovich Mesyatsev was a Russian and Soviet zoologist who specialized in oceanographic research. He was responsible for the first definitions of fish schools in ichthyology. An undersea mountain in the Atlantic, a Cape on Eva-Liv Island, and a mountain in Antarctica are named after Mesyatsev.
