Ausia (animal)

Ausia
Temporal range: Ediacaran
Fossil and M. Fedonkin reconstruction of Ausia as sponge-like organism
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata (?)
Subphylum: Urochordata (?)
Genus: Ausia
Species: A. fenestrata
Binomial name
Ausia fenestrata'
Hahn and Pflug, 1985[1]
Hahn & Pflug reconstruction of Ausia as a pennatulacean

Ausia fenestrata is a curious Ediacaran period (630 – 542 million years ago) fossil represented by only one specimen 5 cm long from the Nama Group, a Vendian to Cambrian group of stratigraphic sequences deposited in the Nama foreland basin in central and southern Namibia.[1] It has similarity to Burykhia from Ediacaran (Vendian) siliciclastic sediments exposed on the Syuzma River of northern Russia.[2][3][4] This fossil is of the form of an elongate bag-like sandstone cast (Nama-type preservation) tapering to a cone on one end. Surface of the fossil is covered with oval depressions ("windows") regularly spaced over the surface in the manner of concentric/parallel rows. The taxonomic identity of Ausia is unresolved.

Interpretations

See also

References

Reconstructed as a tunicate
  1. 1 2 3 Hahn, G., Pflug, H. D. (1985). "Polypenartige Organismen aus dem Jung-Präkambrium (Nama-Gruppe) von Namibia". Geologica et Palaeontologica 19: 1–13.
  2. IGCP 493 Annual Report 2003
  3. 1 2 M. A. Fedonkin (1996). "Ausia as an ancestor of archeocyathans, and other sponge-like organisms". In: Enigmatic Organisms in Phylogeny and Evolution. Abstracts. Moscow, Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, p. 90-91.
  4. 1 2 3 4 M.A. Fedonkin, P. Vickers Rich, B. Swalla, P. Trusler, M. Hall. (2008). "A Neoproterozoic chordate with possible affinity to the ascidians: New fossil evidence from the Vendian of the White Sea, Russia and its evolutionary and ecological implications". HPF-07 Rise and fall of the Ediacaran (Vendian) biota. International Geological Congress - Oslo 2008.
  5. Gary C. Williams. "Aspects of the Evolutionary Biology of Pennatulacean Octocorals".
  6. 1 2 Mark A. S. McMenamin (1998). "The Sand Menagerie". In: The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life. Columbia University Press. New York. pp.11-46.
  7. Fedonkin, M. A.; Vickers-Rich, P.; Swalla, B. J.; Trusler, P.; Hall, M. (2012). "A new metazoan from the Vendian of the White Sea, Russia, with possible affinities to the ascidians". Paleontological Journal 46: 1. doi:10.1134/S0031030112010042.
  8. Vickers-Rich P. (2007). "Chapter 4. The Nama Fauna of Southern Africa". In: Fedonkin M.A., Gehling J.G., Grey K., Narbonne G.M., Vickers-Rich P. The Rise of Animals: Evolution and Diversification of the Kingdom Animalia, Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 69-87
  9. Dzik, Jerzy (August 2009). "Possible Ediacaran Ancestry of the Halkieriids" (PDF). In Smith, Martin R.; O'Brien, Lorna J.; Caron, Jean-Bernard. Abstract Volume. International Conference on the Cambrian Explosion (Walcott 2009). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: The Burgess Shale Consortium (published 31 July 2009). ISBN 978-0-9812885-1-2.
  10. Dzik, J. (2011). "Possible Ediacaran ancestry of the halkieriids". Palaeontographica Canadiana 21: 205–218.
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