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Funisia
''Funisisa'' is a genus of extinct, colonial sponge-like organisms from the late Ediacaran of South Australia. It is a monotypic genus, containing only ''Funisisa dorothea''. Discovery and naming The fossil material of ''Funisia'' was found in the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, Nilpena Ediacara National Park, South Australia in 2007, and formally described and named in 2008. The generic name ''Funisia'' is after the Latin "rope", and is pronounced to rhyme with Tunisia. The name ''dorothea'' is in honour of Dorothy Droser, the mother of Mary L. Droser, one of the scientists who studied the organism. Description ''Funisia'' was a nonmotile organism resembling an upright worm that stood about tall. Source: University of California - Riverside via physorg.com Because individuals grew in dense collections of animals the same age, it is believed to have reproduced sexually, as well as reproduced by budding like modern sponges and corals. Although the evolution ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olgunidae
Olgunidae is an extinct family from the Ediacaran, with possible relations to the phylum Porifera. They lived from around 557 to 551 Ma, with the type species being '' Olgunia''. Description Olgunids have tubular to sac-like bodies, with sizes ranging from to in height, which are made up of segments/partitions with regular to irregular spacing and sizes, and stand tall from the seafloor, with some genera having dichotomous branching, although a recent study done on one of the olgunid members, '' Funisia'', has noted that branching is only observed in a single specimen, and may have been the result of nonlethal damage, and recovering from said damage. They also all bear small disks at their bases, allowing them to attach to the surface of the substrate. They are also noted be colonial in nature, being found in small to large groups, although specimens of one of the members, '' Vaveliksia'', is more commonly found solitary. ''Funisia'' is noted to also show signs of sexual rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olgunia
''Olgunia'' is an extinct genus of colonial, sponge-like organisms from the late Ediacaran of the Russia, and is the namesake of the family Olgunidae. It is a monotypic genus, containing only ''Olgunia bondarenkoae''. Discovery and name The holotype material, and accompanying material, of ''Olgunia'' was found in the Erga Beds of the Mezen Formation, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, and formally described and named in 2025. The generic name ''Olgunia'', and specific name ''bondarenkoae'' are derived from the Latinised forename and surname of Olga Borisovna Bondarenko, who is an associate professor at the Department of Paleontology at Lomonosov Moscow State University, known researcher on Paleozoic heliolitid corals, and also a teacher to the author that described the fossil material. Description ''Olgunia bondarenkoae'' consists of a grouping of oval, saccular bodies, which grow up to a maximum length of , and a width of . These are suggested to have stood up above the surfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic geologic eon, 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 Ediacaran Period is named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, where trace fossils of a diverse community of previously unrecognized lifeforms (later named the Ediacaran biota) were first discovered by geologist Reg Sprigg in 1946. Its status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years. Although the period took namesake from the Ediacara Hills ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran Life
The Ediacaran (; formerly Vendian) biota 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. The Ediacaran biota may have undergone evolutionary radiation in a proposed event called the Avalon explosion, . This was after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation. This biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Ediacaran Genera
The existence of life, especially that of animals, before the Cambrian had long been the subject of debate in paleontology. The apparent suddenness of the Cambrian explosion had no firm explanation, and Charles Darwin himself recognized the challenge it posed for his theory of evolution. While reports of Precambrian organisms have been made since Alexander Murray's 1868 discovery of ''Aspidella'', it wasn't until the discovery of ''Charnia'' in 1956 that considerable evidence of Precambrian life had been presented. The period immediately preceding the Cambrian, the Ediacaran, is now widely accepted of containing animal life. It spans from 635 to 540 million years ago, and covers approximately 2% of Earth's history. Taxonomists have purported a total of 245 described genera from the Ediacaran, 162 of which are accepted as valid. Key * Valid genus - Genera that are accepted by the scientific community * Synonym (taxonomy), Junior synonym - Alternative name for an already existi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaveliksia
''Vaveliksia'' is an extinct genus of Ediacaran Sponge-like organism with a long, tubular-shaped body and a attachment disk similar to that of Petalonamids. The ''Vaveliksia'' genus contained two species, ''Vaveliksia velikanovi'' (which honours Vyacheslav A. Velikanov, a Ukrainian geologist) as well as ''Vaveliksia vana'' (with "vana" meaning ''incorporeal in Latin''). The two species vary in appearance to one another, with ''V. velikanovi'' having a more tubular-shaped, sack-like morphology with a crown of wrinkles on top of one of its ends as well as possessing a much more disk-like holdfast with ''V. vana'' having an appearance more similar to that of a Poriferan, with ''V. vana'' having a much more dome-shaped holdfast and a capsule-like body with no crown of wrinkles unlike ''V. velikanovi''. Etymology The generic epithet ''Vaveliksia'' and specific epithet of the type species ''V. velikanovi'' honor the Ukrainian geologist, Vyacheslav A. Velikanov. The specific epithet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porifera
Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a Basal (phylogenetics) , basal clade and a sister taxon of the Eumetazoa , diploblasts. They are sessility (motility) , sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and are one of the most ancient members of macrobenthos, with many historical species being important sponge reef , reef-building organisms. Sponges are multicellular organisms consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cell (biology) , cells, and usually have tube-like bodies full of pores and channels that allow water to circulate through them. They have unspecialized cells that can cellular differentiation , transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. They do not have complex nervous system , nervous, digestive system , digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enigmatic Prehistoric Animal Genera
Enigmatic is an adjective meaning "mysterious" or "puzzling". It may also refer to: * ''Enigmatic'' (album), a 1970 album by Czesław Niemen * '' Enigmatic: Calling'', a 2005 album by Norwegian progressive metal band Pagan's Mind * Enigmatic scale, musical scale used by Verdi and others * "The Enigmatic", a song by Joe Satriani on the album '' Not of This Earth'' See also * Enigmatic leaf turtle, a species of Asian leaf turtle * Enigmatic moray eel, a species found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans * ''Glaresis ''Glaresis'' is a genus of beetles, sometimes called "Enigmatic scarab beetles", in its own family, Glaresidae. It is closely related to, and was formerly included in, the family Scarabaeidae. Although its members occur in arid and sandy areas wo ...'', a genus of beetles sometimes called "enigmatic scarab beetles" * Enigma (other) {{disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metazoa
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Animals form a clade, meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor. Over 1.5 million living animal species have been described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. Animal body lengths range from to . They have complex ecologies and interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as zoology, and the study of animal behaviour is known as ethology. The animal kingdom is divided into five major clades, namely Porifera, Ctenophora, Placozoa, C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cnidaria
Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, sea anemones, corals and some of the smallest marine parasites. Their distinguishing features are an uncentralized nervous system distributed throughout a gelatinous body and the presence of cnidocytes or cnidoblasts, specialized cells with ejectable flagella used mainly for envenomation and capturing prey. Their bodies consist of mesoglea, a non-living, jelly-like substance, sandwiched between two layers of epithelium that are mostly one cell (biology), cell thick. Cnidarians are also some of the few animals that can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Cnidarians mostly have two basic body forms: swimming medusa (biology), medusae and sessility (motility), sessile polyp (zoology), polyps, both of which are radially symmetrical with mou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Algae
Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), make up one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest Phylum, phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 Genus, genera amidst ongoing taxonomic revisions. The majority of species (6,793) are Florideophyceae, and mostly consist of multicellular, ocean, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds. Red algae are abundant in marine habitats. Approximately 5% of red algae species occur in freshwater environments, with greater concentrations in warmer areas. Except for two coastal cave dwelling species in the asexual class Cyanidiophyceae, no terrestrial species exist, which may be due to an evolutionary bottleneck in which the last common ancestor lost about 25% of its core genes and much of its evolutionary plasticity. Red algae form a distinct group characterized by eukaryotic cells without flagella and centrioles, chloroplasts without external endoplasmic reticulum or unstack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
