| Kuibisia Temporal range: Ediacaran | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Cnidaria |
| Class: | Medusae |
| Genus: | † Kuibisia Hahn & Pflug, 1985 |
| Species: | †K. glabra |
| Binomial name | |
| †Kuibisia glabra Hahn & Pflug, 1985 | |
Kuibisia glabra is a sac-like and polyp-like solitary Ediacaran organism. The fossil of Kuibisia was dated to be around 550 - 548 million years old and was found in a pteridinium deposit at Aar Farm in Namibia, South Africa. [1]
The holotype fossil of Kuibisia was found from the Aar Farm, Kuibis Quartzite, Nama Group in Namibia, and described in 1985. [1] [2]
The generic name Kuibisia comes from the place name "Kuibis Subgroup", where the fossils were found. The specific name Glabra derives directly from the Latin word "glabra", to mean “smooth”, after the appearance of the organisms surface.
Kuibisia glabra is built like a conical shaped polyp, about 100 mm (3.9 in) in height and 35 mm (1.4 in) at its widest point. [3] It has a sack-like central region, and slender basal core. The organism lived as a single and solitary polyp. The apical “mouth” is densely covered by a wreath of tentacles and developed from coaxial ribs that cover the surface of the organism. The fossil is dated to be around 550 - 548 million years old. [1]
Kuibisia is ecologically similar to other polyp shaped organisms, the Ceriantharia and the Actiniaria. Kuibisia resembles the sessile Ceriantharia in some features, but this does not mean that there is a relationship between them. [1] Hahn and Pflug [1] placed the genera Ausia and Kuibisia with the family Ausiidae and interpreted them as an early branch of Coelenterata.
A recent paper that describes Arimasia , also re-evaluated all genera from the same area that Arimasia comes from, noting that a similar looking genus Namalia may be a senior synonym of Kuibisia, with both possibly being conspecific with the Ernietta genus all together, noting that the differences in morphology may be down to the preservation of the fossil material. [4]
The Ediacaran is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic Eon as well as the last of the so-called "Precambrian supereon", before the beginning of the subsequent Cambrian Period marks the start of the Phanerozoic Eon, where recognizable fossil evidence of life becomes common.
The cloudinids, an early metazoan family containing the genera Acuticocloudina, Cloudina and Conotubus, lived in the late Ediacaran period about 550 million years ago and became extinct at the base of the Cambrian. They formed millimetre-scale conical fossils consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another; the appearance of the organism itself remains unknown. The name Cloudina honors the 20th-century geologist and paleontologist Preston Cloud.
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.
Ausia fenestrata is a curious Ediacaran period fossil represented by only one specimen 5 cm long from the Nama Group, a Vendian to Cambrian group of stratigraphic sequences deposited in the Nama foreland basin in central and southern Namibia. It has similarity to Burykhia from Ediacaran (Vendian) siliciclastic sediments exposed on the Syuzma River of Arkhangelsk Oblast, northwest Russia. This fossil is of the form of an elongate bag-like sandstone cast tapering to a cone on one end. The surface of the fossil is covered with oval depressions ("windows") regularly spaced over the surface in the manner of concentric/parallel rows. The taxonomic identity of Ausia is unresolved.
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.
Vendobionts or Vendozoans (Vendobionta) are a proposed very high-level, extinct clade of benthic organisms that made up of the majority of the organisms that were part of the Ediacaran biota. It is a hypothetical group. It would be the oldest of the animals that populated the Earth about 580 million years ago, in the Ediacaran period. They became extinct shortly after the so-called Cambrian explosion, with the introduction of fauna forming groups more recognizably related to modern animals, however sponges may be descended from this clade. It is likely that the whole Ediacaran biota is not a monophyletic clade and not every genus placed in its subtaxa is an animal.
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.
Namacalathus is a problematic metazoan fossil occurring in the latest Ediacaran. The first, and only described species, N. hermanastes, was first described in 2000 from the Nama Group of central and southern Namibia.
Swartpuntia is a monospecific genus of erniettomorph from the terminal Ediacaran period, with at least three quilted, leaf-shaped petaloids — probably five or six. The petaloids comprise vertical sheets of tubes filled with sand. Swartpuntia specimens range in length from 12 to 19 cm, and in width from 11.5 to 140 cm. The margin is serrated, with a 1 mm wide groove. A 14 mm wide stem extends down the middle, tapering towards the top, and stopping 25 mm from the tip. The stem has a V-shaped ornamentation on it. The original fossils were found at, and named after, the Swartpunt farm between Aus and Rosh Pinah in Namibia. The generic name comes from Swartpunt, meaning black point in reference to the colour of the rocks. The specific name germsi honours Gerard Germs, who studied the Nama formation of geological beds.
The Ediacaranbiota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period. These were enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms. Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The term "Ediacara biota" has received criticism from some scientists due to its alleged inconsistency, arbitrary exclusion of certain fossils, and inability to be precisely defined.
Ernietta is an extinct genus of Ediacaran organisms with an infaunal lifestyle. Fossil preservations and modeling indicate this organism was sessile and “sack”-shaped. It survived partly buried in substrate, with an upturned bell-shaped frill exposed above the sediment-water interface. Ernietta have been recovered from present-day Namibia, and are a part of the Ediacaran biota, a late Proterozoic radiation of multicellular organisms. They are among the earliest complex multicellular organisms and are known from the late Ediacaran. Ernietta plateauensis remains the sole species of the genus.
Palaeophragmodictya is an extinct genus of sponge-grade organisms from the Ediacaran Period. Originally interpreted as a hexactinellid sponge, the organism also bears some coelomate characteristics, including bilateral symmetry.
Eoandromeda is an Ediacaran organism consisting of eight radial spiral arms, and known from two taphonomic modes: the standard Ediacara type preservation in Australia, and as carbonaceous compressions from the Doushantuo formation of China, where it is abundant.
The Nama Group is a 125,000 square kilometres (48,000 sq mi) megaregional Vendian to Cambrian group of stratigraphic sequences deposited in the Nama foreland basin in central and southern Namibia. The Nama Basin is a peripheral foreland basin, and the Nama Group was deposited in two early basins, the Zaris and Witputs, to the north, while the South African Vanrhynsdorp Group was deposited in the southern third. The Nama Group is made of fluvial and shallow-water marine sediments, both siliciclastic and carbonate. La Tinta Group in Argentina is considered equivalent to Nama Group.
Orthogonium is a genus of Ediacaran fauna approximately 550-530 million years old. Because of its taphonomy and likeness to other Ediacaran fauna, and as well as to crinoids, paleontologists dispute its classification.
Namalia villieriensis was first described in 1968 by G. J. B. Germs from an outcrop near Helmeringhausen, Namibia and dates back to the Ediacaran Period, around 548 - 541 Ma. Namalia has a conical structure and it is thought that it lived semi-buried in sediment along the seafloor.
Petalostoma kuibis is a species of enigmatic fossil organism from the Ediacaran period, possibly a member of the Petalonamae, of Namibia, Dabris Formation, Farm Aar.
Arimasia germsi is an extinct sponge from the late Ediacaran, with possible affinities to the Archaeocyatha. Estimated to be about 543 million years old, A. germsi has been identified as possibly being the oldest known archaeocyathan to date. Its fossil material was found between 1993 and 1996 from the Nama Group in Namibia.