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Rangeomorphs
The rangeomorphs are a form taxon of frondose Ediacaran fossils that are united by a similarity to '' Rangea''. Some researchers, such as Pflug and Narbonne, suggest that a natural taxon Rangeomorpha may include all similar-looking fossils. Rangeomorphs appear to have had an effective reproductive strategy, based on analysis of the distribution pattern of '' Fractofusus misrai'', which consisted of sending out a waterborne asexual propagule to a distant area, and then spreading rapidly from there, just as plants today spread by stolons or runners. Rangeomorphs are a key part of the Ediacaran biota, which survived about 30 million years, until the base of the Cambrian, which was . They were especially abundant in the early Ediacaran Mistaken Point assemblage found in Newfoundland. Body plan Rangeomorphs consist of branching "frond" elements, each a few centimetres long, each of which is composed of many smaller branching tubes held up by a semi-rigid organic skeleton. This se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hylaecullulus
''Hylaecullulus fordi'' is a species of Ediacaran petalonamid from the Charnwood Forest of Leicestershire, England that serves as an important rangeomorph because of its multifoliate anatomy, known from its fossils. Its overall body plan is similar to that of a goblet, from which its name, ''Hylaecullulus'', derives. Etymology The name ''Hylaecullulus fordi'' derives from its occurrence within Charnwood Forest: , (which means 'from the woods' in Ancient Greek and , which means 'small goblet' in that language. The name of the type species, "fordi", was given to honour Trevor Ford, who made important contributions to the Ediacaran fauna. Discovery ''Hylaecullulus fordi'' was discovered in the hilly tract of Charnwood Forest in 2018 by a team led by C. G. Kenchington. This team found six well-preserved fossils, all of which had fossilised with the lateral view of the animal visible, from the top of the Bradgate Formation of the Maple Group. Although two specimens out of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frondophyllas
''Frondophyllas,'' also referred to Xmas tree, is an extinct, monotypic animal genus in the clade ''Rangeomorpha''. It was found at the Mistaken Point on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada in 2008 by Bamforth and Anderson. The single species is ''Frondophyllas grandis'' and only two specimens have been discovered. Both specimens are incomplete, but one extends to one meter long, making it one of the largest Ediacaran macrofossils. The species name: ''grandis'', comes from its size, and the genus name: ''Frondophyllas'' means "frond with leaves". The organism has a base structure with numerous fronds attached to it. It is the only Ediacaran organism to have distinct leaflets. Evidence suggests that ''F. grandis'' may have been tethered to the seafloor and used these leaflets to "filter feed", or live off nutrients provided by a current. One of the reasons fossils of this species are so rare is because it was a soft-bodied organism. It is believed that ''F. grandis'' w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalofractus
''Avalofractus abaculus'' is a frond-like rangeomorph fossil described from the Ediacaran of the Trepassey Formation, Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland. Morphology ''Avalofractus'' displays a strongly fractal body shape, with four levels of nearly perfectly self-similar, pinnate, alternate branches. It was about 5 cm long on average, with a 1 cm-diameter holdfast at the base of the frond. The stem length is from 1/3 to 1/2 that of the whole frond. It is quite similar to '' Rangea'', even if with distinct morphological differences that justify the creation of a new genus (e.g. absence of subsidiary quilts, frond elements free to rotate independently instead of being attached to each other by a membrane). Distribution In contrast with other rangeomorphs, which have wide distributions, ''Avalofractus'' seems to have been an endemic species, being known only from the Spaniard's Bay deposits. Reproduction It has been suggested that ''Avalofractus'' could have been capable of v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trepassia
''Trepassia'' is a 579 million-year-old fossil of Ediacaran rangeomorph. It was first discovered by Guy M. Narbonne, a professor at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and colleagues in 2009. Three years later, Martin D. Brasier added additional description to ''Trepassia.'' The generic name is taken from the French word, trépassés, which translates to "those that have departed forever" (or "corpses") and honors the Trepassey community in Newfoundland. It was originally described as ''Charnia wardi''; it was referred under this synonym in a 2016 paper. Morphology ''Trepassia'' is one of the oldest known rangeomorphs and spanned over one meter in length. Longest specimens of ''T. wardae'' reached .M. LAFLAMME, G. M. NARBONNE, C. GREENTREE & M. M. ANDERSON. 2016. Morphology and taphonomy of an Ediacaran frond: Charnia from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charnia
''Charnia'' is a genus of frond-like lifeforms belonging to the Ediacaran biota with segmented, leaf-like ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture (thus exhibiting glide reflection, or opposite isometry). The genus ''Charnia'' was named after Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England, where the first fossilised specimen was found. ''Charnia'' is significant because it was the first Precambrian fossil to be recognized as such. The living organism grew on the sea floor and is believed to have fed on nutrients in the water. Despite ''Charnia'' fern-like appearance, it is not a photosynthetic plant or alga because the nature of the fossilbeds where specimens have been found implies that it originally lived in deep water, well below the photic zone where photosynthesis can occur. Diversity Several ''Charnia'' species were described but only the type species ''C. masoni'' is considered valid. Some specimens of ''C. masoni'' were described a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rangeidae
''Rangea'' is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs. ''Rangea'' was the first complex Precambrian macrofossil named and described anywhere in the world. ''Rangea'' was a centimetre- to decimetre-scale frond characterised by a repetitive pattern of self-similar branches and a sessile benthic lifestyle. Fossils are typically preserved as moulds and casts exposing only a leafy petalodium, and the rarity and incompleteness of specimens has made it difficult to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the entire organism.Sharp, Alana C., Alistair R. Evans, Siobhan A. Wilson, and Patricia Vickers-Rich. "First Non-destructive Internal Imaging of Rangea, an Icon of Complex Ediacaran Life." Precambrian Research 299 (2017): 303-08. doi: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.023 Fossilized ''Rangea'' consists of several vanes. Each vane has a foliate shape with a series of recessed furrows that run outwards at varying angles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khatyspytia
''Khatyspytia'' is a frondose Frondosity (from Latin ''frondōsus'' meaning 'leafy') is the property of an organism that normally flourishes with fronds or leaf-like structures. Many frondose organisms are thalloid and lack the organization of tissues into organs, with the ... member of the Ediacara biota. It is slender, with many short branches, and is named after the Khatyspyt Formation. See also * List of Ediacaran genera References Ediacaran life Fossils of Russia Ediacaran Asia Ediacaran Europe Ediacaran first appearances {{Ediacaran-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rangea
''Rangea'' is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs. ''Rangea'' was the first complex Precambrian macrofossil named and described anywhere in the world. ''Rangea'' was a centimetre- to decimetre-scale frond characterised by a repetitive pattern of self-similar branches and a sessile benthic lifestyle. Fossils are typically preserved as moulds and casts exposing only a leafy petalodium, and the rarity and incompleteness of specimens has made it difficult to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the entire organism.Sharp, Alana C., Alistair R. Evans, Siobhan A. Wilson, and Patricia Vickers-Rich. "First Non-destructive Internal Imaging of Rangea, an Icon of Complex Ediacaran Life." Precambrian Research 299 (2017): 303-08. doi: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.023 Fossilized ''Rangea'' consists of several vanes. Each vane has a foliate shape with a series of recessed furrows that run outwards at varying angles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bradgatia
''Bradgatia linfordensis'' is a bush-like Ediacaran fossil. It consists of six or more fronds radiating from a central anchor point at the base. It superficially resembles a compressed cabbage in appearance, although in reality it had a more intricate, fractal mode of organisation. When multiple fossils are found together they are regularly spaced out rather than randomly distributed. It dominates the ecosystem at 8 to 22 cm above the mud surface at the bottom the sea where it grew. It was over-towered by ''Charnia ''and ''Charniodiscus ''which grew nearby. ''Bradgatia'' has been found in Charnwood Forest in England, at Mistaken Point and Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland and also in British Columbia. These fossils are dated from 565 to 575 mya. It was described by Helen Boynton & Ford in 1995 who published in ''Ediacaran fossils from the Precambrian (Charnian Supergroup) of Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, England''. Mercian Geol 13 (4) March: 178 oological Record V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hapsidophyllas
''Hapsidophyllas'' is a rare Ediacaran rangeomorph fossil found at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. It was first identified by Emily Bamforth and Guy Narbonne in 2009. Its name comes from the Greek words for “a network of leaves.” Because its characteristic flexible leaflet structure is dissimilar to other known rangeomorphs, Bamforth and Narbonne describe it as a new rangeomorph form, called hapsidophyllid. The only other known hapsidophyllid is the Ediacaran frond '' Frondophyllas grandis'', which shares the network-like configuration of leaflets seen in ''Hapsidophyllas''. Currently, the ''Hapsidophyllas flexibilis'' holotype resides in its type locality in the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, and a cast of the specimen is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. The ''Hapsidophyllas flexibilis'' holotype is 110 mm long and 4 mm wide. It is composed of multibranched leaflets radiating from a single elongate basal rod. The leaflets gradual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culmofrons
''Beothukis mistakensis'' is a rare fossil frond-like member of the Rangeomorpha, described from the Ediacaran of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. It had been identified since 1992, referred in papers as a "spatulate frond" or "flat recliner", but not formally described until 2009. The original fossils from which the genus has been described are still ''in situ'', but replicas are preserved at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Claims of a stem have been contentious, and based largely on structures that have subsequently been determined to be erosional scours, and is so considered to be a recliner Morphology ''Beothukis'' appears as a frond composed of two asymmetrical rows of branches that depart from a central growth axis, 12.5–15.5 cm long and 4.5–6 cm wide. Secondary growth is present around the tip. Secondary order units cross the primary order axes as is common in the Charnida The alternations are i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago (mya) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period mya. Its subdivisions, and its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established as "Cambrian series" by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for 'Cymru' (Wales), where Britain's Cambrian rocks are best exposed. Sedgwick identified the layer as part of his task, along with Roderick Murchison, to subdivide the large "Transition Series", although the two geologists disagreed for a while on the appropriate categorization. The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of sedimentary deposits, sites of exceptional preservation where "soft" parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells. As a result, our understanding of the Cambria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
