Modular construction of early Ediacaran complex life forms.
Newly discovered, exceptionally preserved, soft-bodied fossils near Spaniard's Bay in eastern Newfoundland exhibit features not previously described from Ediacaran (terminal Neoproterozoic) fossils. All of the Spaniard's Bay taxa were composed of similar architectural elements-centimeter-scale frondlets exhibiting three orders of fracticality in branching. Frondlets were combined as modules atop semi-rigid organic skeletons to form a wide array of larger constructions, including frondose and plumose structures. This architecture and construction define the "rangeomorphs," a biological clade that dominated the Mistaken Point assemblage (575 to 560 million years ago) but does not appear to be ancestral to any Phanerozoic or modern organisms.
Narbonne
Guy M
GM
Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. narbonne@geol.queensu.ca
D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D009523:Newfoundland and Labrador; D010163:Paleontology