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
- Namacalathus, another calcifying Ediacaran fossil.
- 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. PMID 17540895. doi:10.1126/science.1137284.
- ↑ Wood, Rachel A.; John P. Grotzinger; J. A. D. Dickson (28 June 2002). "Proterozoic Modular Biomineralized Metazoan from the Nama Group, Namibia". Science. 296 (5577): 2383–2386. PMID 12089440. doi:10.1126/science.1071599.
- ↑ 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.
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