Bomakellia
| Bomakellia Temporal range: Ediacaran
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|---|---|
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| B. kelleri trace fossil | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | †Petalonamae |
| Family: | †Charniidae |
| Genus: | †Bomakellia Fedonkin, 1985 |
| Species: | †B. kelleri
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| Binomial name | |
| †Bomakellia kelleri Fedonkin, 1985[1]
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Bomakellia is an extinct petalonamid from the Late Ediacaran. It is estimated to have lived some 555 million years ago, and has only been found in the Ustʹ Pinega Formation in Northwestern Russia. Originally described as a primitive arthropod-like creature, more recent studies have seen it placed within the phylum Petalonamae. Bomakellia kelleri is the only species.
Discovery
[edit]The holotype, and only, fossil of Bomakellia was found in the Syuzma River of the Ustʹ Pinega Formation, in Arkhangelsk Oblast of Northwestern Russia, and described in 1985.[1]
Description
[edit]Bomakellia kelleri has a frond-like shape, growing up to 90 mm (3.5 in) in height.[1] Despite there only being a single fossil, it still preserves enough to show that Bomakellia was a small frond with a tetraradial symmetry, bearing similarities with Rangea, another rangeomorph petalonamid.[2]
Affinities
[edit]-
An outdated reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri as a proto-arthropod, based on B. M. Waggoner's interpretation. -
A more recent reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri, this time as a petalonamid, based on Dzik J's interpretation.
When originally described in 1985, Bomakellia was interpreted to be a form of early arthropod,[1] with a study by B. M. Waggoner concluding that the organism was a primitive anomalocarid and erroneously identifying the ridges of its supposed cephalon as eyes, which would have made Bomakellia the oldest known animal with vision.[3] However, this interpretation has not been widely accepted, and in some cases not acknowledged.[4][5]
More recent studies have placed Bomakellia within the family Charniidae, which itself is a part of the clade Rangeomorpha, and phylum Petalonamae, based on a better re-description of the singular fossil.[2]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d M. A. Fedonkin (1985). "Systematic Description of Vendian Metazoa". Vendian System: Historical–Geological and Paleontological Foundation. 1: Paleontology. Moscow: Nauka: 70–106.
- ^ a b 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. S2CID 22844283.
- ^ B. M. Waggoner (1996). "Phylogenic Hypotheses of the Relationships of Arthropods to Precambrian and Cambrian Problematic Fossil Taxa". Systematic Biology. 45 (2). Systematic Biology, Vol. 45, No. 2: 280–293. doi:10.2307/2413615. JSTOR 2413615.
- ^ McMenamin, Mark A. S. (1998). The Garden of Ediacara. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10559-0.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ^ Fryer, G. (1999). "Cambrian animals: evolutionary curiosities or the crucible of creation?". Hydrobiologia. 403: 1–11. doi:10.1023/A:1003799411987. S2CID 21020029.