Hiemalora
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| Hiemalora Fossil range: Ediacaran: 550 to 543 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | ||||
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| Type species | ||||
Pinegia stellaris
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| Species | ||||
Fedonkin 1982
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Hiemalora is a fossil of the Ediacaran biota, reaching around 3 cm in diameter, which superficially resembles a sea anemone. The genus has a sack-like body with faint radiating lines originally interpreted as tentacles, but discovery of a frond-like structure seemingly attached to some Heimalora has added weight to a a competing interpretation: that it represents the holdfast of a larger organism.[2] This interpretation would stand against its original classification in the medusoid Cnidaria; it would also consign a once-popular hypothesis placing Hiemalora in the chondrophores,[3] on the basis of its tentacle structure, to the dustbin. Studies testing the feasibility of hypothesis investigated the possibilities that such fragile tentacles could be preserved, and concluded that it would be very improbable — especially as many Hiemalora bearing beds also contain such fossils as Cyclomedusa, but do not preserve the tentacles on these organisms.[4]
Heimalora has been identified in a wide range of facies and locations globally.[5]
[edit] Entymology
The genus was originally named Pinegia,[1] but was renamed two years later when it was realised that a genus of Permian insect already bore the name.[4] The revised name comes from:[verification needed]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Fedonkin, M.A. (1980). "New representatives of the Precambrian coelenterates in the northern Russian platform". Paleontologicheskij Zhurnal: 7-15.
- ^ Hofmann, H.J. (2005). "HIEMALORA AND OTHER EDIACARAN FOSSILS OF NORTHEASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND, AND CORRELATIONS WITHIN AVALONIA". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 37 (7): 485.
- ^ Seilacher, A.; Buatois, L.A.; Gabriela Mangano, M. (2005). "Trace fossils in the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: Behavioral diversification, ecological turnover and environmental shift". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 227 (4): 323-356. doi:.
- ^ a b Narbonne, G.M. (1994). "New Ediacaran Fossils from the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwestern Canada". Journal of Paleontology 68 (3): 411-416.
- ^ Waggoner, B. (1998). "The Ediacaran Biotas in Space and Time". Integrative and Comparative Biology 43 (1): 104-113. doi:.
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