New Ediacaran fossils (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 00:44 (2140 days ago) @ David Turell

Two more types are found:

https://phys.org/news/2018-06-creatures-dawn-animal-life.html

"two new animals discovered by a UC Riverside-led team of researchers:
Obamus coronatus, a name that honors President Barack Obama's passion for science. This disc-shaped creature was between 0.5-2 cm across with raised spiral grooves on its surface. Obamus coronatus did not seem to move around, rather it was embedded to the ocean mat, a thick layer of organic matter that covered the early ocean floor.

"Attenborites janeae, named after the English naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough for his science advocacy and support of paleontology. This tiny ovoid, less than a centimeter across, was adorned with internal grooves and ridges giving it a raisin-like appearance.

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"In the hierarchical taxonomic classification system, the Ediacara Biota are not yet organized into families, and little is known about how they relate to modern animals. About 50 genera have been described, which often have only one species.

"'The two genera that we identified are a new body plan, unlike anything else that has been described," Droser said. "We have been seeing evidence for these animals for quite a long time, but it took us a while to verify that they are animals within their own rights and not part of another animal."

"The animals were glimpsed in a particularly well-preserved fossil bed described in another paper published by Droser's group that will be included in the Flinders Ranges issue of AJES. The researchers dubbed this fossil bed "Alice's Restaurant Bed," a tribute to the Arlo Guthrie song and its lyric, "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant."

"'I've been working in this region for 30 years, and I've never seen such a beautifully preserved bed with so many high quality and rare specimens, including Obamus and Attenborites," Droser said. "

Comment: More simple Ediacaran forms that do not remove the gap, and are not obvious precursors of the Cambrian organisms, even though on a time passage basis they must be.