Bomakellia

Bomakellia
Temporal range: 555Ma
↓
Bomakellia kelleri, reconstructed as a rangeomorph
Scientific classification
Kingdom: incertae sedis
Phylum: Rangeomorpha (?)
Genus: Bomakellia
Species: Bomakellia kelleri
Fedonkin 1985[1]

Bomakellia kelleri is an Ediacaran fossil organism represented by only one specimen approximately 9 cm long from the Ust'-Pinega Formation of the Syuzma River and it has similarity to Mialsemia semichatovi from Yorga Formation of the Ediacaran (Vendian) siliciclastic sediments exposed on the Zimnie Gory locality, White Sea of northern Russia and these rocks are dated 555 million year old.

Bomakellia kelleri reconstructed here as a proto-arthropod in yellow and green.

It was originally classified by Mikhail A. Fedonkin as belonging to the problematic Arthropod Class "Paratrilobita."[1] Indeed, a study by B. M. Waggoner even concluded that Bomakellia was a primitive anomalocarid and he went on to identify ridges in the cephalon as being eyes, making this creature the earliest known animal with sight.[2] But this hypothesis has not reached acceptance, nor acknowledgement.[3][4]

Closer examination identified a tetraradial symmetry, and a frond-like morphology more reminiscent of Rangea – its current interpretation is as a rangeomorph frond, possibly closely related to the Chinese Paracharnia.[5]

See also

List of Ediacaran genera

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 M. A. Fedonkin (1985). "Systematic Description of Vendian Metazoa". Vendian System: Historical–Geological and Paleontological Foundation, Vol. 1: Paleontology. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 70–106.
  2. ↑ B. M. Waggoner (1996). "Phylogenic Hypotheses of the Relationships of Arthropods to Precambrian and Cambrian Problematic Fossil Taxa". Systematic Biology (Systematic Biology, Vol. 45, No. 2) 45 (2): 280–293. doi:10.2307/2413615. JSTOR 2413615.
  3. ↑ McMenamin, Mark A. S. (1998). The Garden of Ediacara. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10559-2.
  4. ↑ Fryer, G. (1999). "Cambrian animals: evolutionary curiosities or the crucible of creation?" (PDF). Hydrobiologia 403: 1–11. doi:10.1023/A:1003799411987.
  5. ↑ Dzik, J. (2002). "Possible ctenophoran affinities of the precambrian "sea-pen" Rangea". Journal of Morphology 252 (3): 315–334. doi:10.1002/jmor.1108. PMID 11948678.