Namapoikia
| Namapoikia Temporal range: 549 million years ago (Terminal Ediacaran) | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | incertæ sedis |
| Genus: | Namapoikia Wood et al. 2002 |
| Species: | N. rietoogensis Wood et al. 2002 |
Namapoikia rietoogensis is among the earliest known animals to produce a calcareous (probably aragonite) skeleton.[1] Known from the Ediacaran period, before the Cambrian explosion of calcifying animals, the organism grew up to a metre in diameter and resembles a colonial sponge or cnidarian.[2] It was an encruster, filling vertical fissures in the reefs in which it originally grew.[3]
The fossil was first found in the Omkyk Member from Rietoog in southern Namibia, in association with another calcifying fossil, Cloudina.
See also
- Ediacaran biota: life forms of the time
- Cloudina and Namacalathus, other calcifying Ediacaran fossils.
- List of Ediacaran genera
References
- ↑ Susannah M. Porter (1 June 2007). "Seawater Chemistry and Early Carbonate Biomineralization". Science 316 (5829): 1302. Bibcode:2007Sci...316.1302P. doi:10.1126/science.1137284. PMID 17540895.
- ↑ Proterozoic Modular Biomineralized Metazoan from the Nama Group, Namibia: Rachel A Wood, John P. Grotzinger, J. A. D. Dickson: Science 28 June 2002: 2383 doi:10.1126/science.1071599 PMID 12089440
- ↑ Grotzinger, J.P.; Watters, W.A.; Knoll, A.H. (2000). "Calcified metazoans in thrombolite-stromatolite reefs of the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group, Namibia". Paleobiology 26 (3): 334–359. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2000)026.