Bomakellia
Bomakellia kelleri is a species of poorly understood Ediacaran fossil organism represented by only one specimen discovered in the Ust'-Pinega Formation of the Syuzma River (in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia) from rocks dated 555 million years old. Bomakellia was originally interpreted as an early Arthropod.[1] A study by B. M. Waggoner even concluded that the organism was a primitive anomalocarid and erroneously identified the ridges of supposed Cephalon as being eyes making Bomakellia the oldest known animal with vision.[2] But this hypothesis has not reached acceptance, nor acknowledgement.[3][4]
Bomakellia Temporal range: | |
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Bomakellia kelleri, restored as a rangeomorph | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | †Petalonamae |
Family: | †Charniidae |
Genus: | †Bomakellia Fedonkin, 1990 |
Species: | †B. kelleri |
Binomial name | |
†Bomakellia kelleri Fedonkin, 1985[1] | |
A closer examination of the specimen has identified a tetraradial symmetry in the body, and a frond-like morphology which closely resembles that of Rangea – the current interpretation of Bomakellia is as a rangeomorph frond, which could possibly mean that it's closely related to the Chinese Paracharnia.[5]
References
- M. A. Fedonkin (1985). "Systematic Description of Vendian Metazoa". Vendian System: Historical–Geological and Paleontological Foundation. Moscow: Nauka. 1: Paleontology: 70–106.
- 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.
- McMenamin, Mark A. S. (1998). The Garden of Ediacara. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10559-0.
- Fryer, G. (1999). "Cambrian animals: evolutionary curiosities or the crucible of creation?". Hydrobiologia. 403: 1–11. doi:10.1023/A:1003799411987. S2CID 21020029.
- 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.