Horodyskia

Horodyskia
Temporal range: 1500 - 900 Ma
Horodyskia apparently re-arranged itself into fewer but larger main masses as as the sediment grew deeper round its base.[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Genus: Horodyskia
Species: H. Moniliformis

Horodyskia is a fossilised organism found in rocks dated from 1,500 million years ago to 900 million years ago. Its shape has been described as a "string of beads" connected by a very fine thread.[1] It may also have had a series of holdfasts along the bottom of the thread.[2]

Comparisons of different fossils in the same locations suggest that it re-arranged itself into fewer but larger main masses as the sediment grew deeper round its base.[1]

It may have been an early metazoan,[1] or a colonial foraminiferan.[3]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Fedonkin, M.A. (March 2003). "The origin of the Metazoa in the light of the Proterozoic fossil record". Paleontological Research 7 (1): 9–41. doi:10.2517/prpsj.7.9. http://www.vend.paleo.ru/pub/Fedonkin_2003.pdf. Retrieved 2008-09-02. 
  2. ^ Martin, D.McB. (August 2004). "Depositional environment and taphonomy of the 'strings of beads': Mesoproterozoic multicellular fossils in the Bangemall Supergroup, Western Australia". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 51 (4): 555–561. doi:10.1111/j.1400-0952.2004.01074.x. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/35861762-44649531/content~db=all~content=a725292214~tab=content. Retrieved 2008-09-02. 
  3. ^ Dong, L., Xiao, S., Shen, B., and Zhou, C. (Jan 2008). "Silicified Horodyskia and Palaeopascichnus from upper Ediacaran cherts in South China: tentative phylogenetic interpretation and implications for evolutionary stasis". Journal of the Geological Society 165: 367–378. doi:10.1144/0016-76492007-074. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3721/is_200801/ai_n24394476/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1. Retrieved 2008-09-02.