Proarticulata
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| Proarticulata Fossil range: Ediacaran |
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 Artist's concept of Dickinsonia costata, a putative proarticulatan.
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Proarticulata is a proposed extinct phylum of very early bilateral animals known from fossils found in the Ediacaran (Vendian) fauna. Mikhail A. Fedonkin describes animals in Proarticulata as having a "shield-like" shape, an unmineralized, thin, flexible carapace and a thick, segmented body. The segmentation is described as a "symmetry of gliding reflection", in which the correspoding segments on the left and right sides do not line up, but are staggered. Fedonkin suggests that Proarticulata may be ancestral to the chordates. Fedonkin places the genera Dickinsonia, Yorgia, Vendia, Archaeaspinus, Andiva and Ovatoscutum in Proarticulata.[1] A. Yu. Ivantsof has proposed that the genera Tamga, Lossinia, Ivovicia and Onega are in or close to Proarticulata.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Fedonkin, Mikhail A. 2003. "The origin of the Metazoa in the light of the Proterozoic fossil record". Paleontological Research, vol. 7, no. 1, March 31, 2003. P.35. Retrieved from [1] May 19, 2007
- ^ Ivantsof, A. Yu. 2007. "Small Vendian transversely Articulated fossils". Paleontological Journal. Volume 41, Number 2. April, 2007. Abstract retrieved from [2] May 19, 2007
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