| Pambikalbae Temporal range: Ediacaran, about | |
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| Genus: | †Pambikalbae Jenkins and Nedin, 2007 |
| Species: | †P. hasenohrae |
| Binomial name | |
| Pambikalbae hasenohrae Jenkins and Nedin, 2007 | |
Pambikalbae is a monospecific genus known from the Ediacaran Period (approximately 555 million years ago) of South Australia. Its morphology resembles the morphology of colonial cnidarians, such as sea pens or siphonophores.
Pambikalbae had a broad, frondose-shaped body composed of multiple vanes extending from an axial stem, and containing a serial series of chambers. Specimens of Pambikalbae found thus far have measured approximately 20 to 30 cm in length, with a width of 12 cm at the widest point of the frondose-body, and 6.6 cm wide at the stem. [2]
Pambikalbae is a monospecific genus, with only one known species, Pambikalbae hasenohrae. [2]
Pambikalbae hasenohrae was discovered within a fossiliferous exposure on the Nilpena pastoral property in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Pamela Hasenohr, an amateur geologist, found and brought the Pambikalbae fossils to the attention of Richard Jenkins, a research associate of the South Australian Museum. Richard Jenkins and his associate Chris Nedin collected five Pambikalbae specimens from this exposure, and published their description of the genus in 2007. In this publication, they named the type species of the genus, P. hasenohrae, after Pamela Hasenohr.The name of the genus is a combination of parnkalla words "Pambi(meaning small bag or purse, in reference to the chamber like structure)" and "Kalbi(meaning leaf)". [2]
Pambikalbae hasenohrae specimens have been found preserved in channel sandstones on the Nilpena pastoral property in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. These sandstones occur directly below the Ediacaran Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, [2] a stratigraphic layer rich with Ediacaran fossils that was deposited during cycles of marine transgression. [3]
Pambikalbae hasenohrae fossils consist of both surface molds and internal casts. It is likely that the hollow chambers of these specimens were partly filled with sediments before their entire bodies were buried, preventing the bodies from being entirely flattened during burial and preserving the three-dimensional structure of both the internal and external parts of the original organisms. The lithified sands that occupy the once hollow parts of the specimens exhibit fine laminations and small scale crossbedding, which indicates that the specimens were buried progressively, not instantly. This gradual burial may have created enough time for currents to carry sediments into the internal chambers before the entire organism was buried. [2]
Pambikalbae was likely a benthic, sessile, heterotrophic marine suspension feeder. The chambers of Pambikalbae were open to the external environment, allowing water to enter and exit freely. These chambers were likely lined with flagellate cells or cilia, which would capture detrital food particles suspended in the water. [2]
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.
Ediacara Hills, also known as Ediacaran Hills, are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around 650 kilometres (400 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide. They are within the Nilpena Ediacara National Park.
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about 200 km (125 mi) north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over 430 km (265 mi) from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna.
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.
Spriggina is a genus of early animals whose relationship to living animals is unclear. Fossils of Spriggina are known from the late Ediacaran period in what is now South Australia. Spriggina floundersi is the official fossil emblem of South Australia; it has been found nowhere else.
Ediacaria is a fossil genus dating to the Ediacaran Period of the Neoproterozoic Era. Unlike most Ediacaran biota, which disappeared almost entirely from the fossil record at the end of the Period, Ediacaria fossils have been found dating from the Baikalian age of the Upper Riphean to 501 million years ago, well into the Cambrian Period. Ediacaria consists of concentric rough circles, radial lines between the circles and a central dome, with a diameter from 1 to 70 cm.
Rangea is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs.
Aspidella is an Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil of uncertain affinity. It is known from the single species A. terranovica.
Parvancorina is a genus of shield-shaped bilaterally symmetrical fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran seafloor. It has some superficial similarities with the Cambrian trilobite-like arthropods.
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.
Rugoconites is a genus of Ediacaran biota found as fossils in the form of a circular or oval-like impression preserved in high relief, six or more centimeters in diameter. The fossils are surrounded by frills that have been interpreted as sets of tentacles. The bifurcating radial ribs, spreading from a central dome, serve to distinguish this genus from the sponge Palaeophragmodictya, and may represent the channels of the gastrovascular system. Fossils of Rugoconites have been interpreted as early sponges, although this is countered by Sepkoski et al. (2002), who interpreted the organism as a free-swimming jellyfish-like cnidarian; similar to Ovatoscutum. However, the fossil is consistently preserved as a neat circular form and its general morphology does not vary, therefore a benthic and perhaps slow-moving or sessile lifestyle is more likely. Ivantstov & Fedonkin (2002), suggest that Rugoconites may possess tri-radial symmetry and be a member of the Trilobozoa.
Ediacaran type preservation relates to the dominant preservational mode in the Ediacaran period, where Ediacaran organisms were preserved as casts on the surface of microbial mats.
Nilpena Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia.
Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which includes the former Ediacara Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the northern Flinders Ranges, in the state of South Australia. It is located about around 551 km (342 mi) north of the city of Adelaide, around 30 kilometres south-west of the town of Leigh Creek in the state's Far North.
The Ediacaran fossil Hallidaya, a close relative of Skinnera lived in Belomorian of the Late Ediacaran period prior to the Cambrian explosion and thrived in the marine strata on the ocean floor of what is now considered Australia. These fossils were disk-shaped organisms that were slightly dome shaped with tri-radial symmetry. These Ediacaran organisms thrived by living in low-energy inner shelf, in the wave- and current-agitated shoreface, and in the high-energy distributary systems.
Obamus coronatus is a torus-shaped Ediacaran fossil from the Rawnsley Quartzite of South Australia named in honor of former American President Barack Obama by the lab of Mary L. Droser.
Hadrynichorde is a frondose organism from the Ediacaran period discovered in Newfoundland, Canada. It is a sessile, benthic marine organism. resembling modern sea whips.
Plexus ricei is an enigmatic fossil animal known from South Australia that has a problematic taxonomy due to its fossils not resembling any other known taxon that is part of the Ediacaran biota.
Attenborites janeae is a species of Ediacaran organism from South Australia first described by a team led by Palaeontologist Mary L. Droser in 2018. The genus Attenborites was named after Sir David Attenborough. The bed in which the first 52 specimens from Australia of A. janeae was given the ARB designation "Alice's Restaurant Bed", and has been given that nickname for its abundance of rare taxa and newly described ones and is also a reference to Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song, "Alice's Restaurant". The new taxon is unique from all of these other taxa in the way that it has a much more irregular morphology than the other 52 specimens.