Thaumaptilon

Thaumaptilon
Temporal range: Burgess Shale
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria?
Genus: Thaumaptilon
Conway Morris, 1993
Species: T. walcotti

Thaumaptilon is a fossil from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale which some authors have compared to members of the Ediacaran biota, generally believed to have disappeared at the start of the Cambrian, 542 million years ago. It was up to 20 cm long, and attached itself to the sea floor with a holdfast.

Leaf-shaped, Thaumaptilon had a central axis extending to its tip, with many "ribs" radiating from it, in a similar manner to the ribs of a leaf. these may have had canals connecting them to the axis. One side of its surface was covered in spots, which might have been zooids.

Thaumaptilon is considered important due to its resemblance to some Ediacarans; it was believed to be a relative of forms such as Charnia.[1][2][3]

Forms related to Charnia were once believed to be related to sea-pens (pennatulacean cnidarians), although this hypothesis has been questioned based on several lines of evidence.[4][5]

The name Thaumaptilon derives from the Greek Thauma, "wonderful", + ptilion, "soft feather".

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References

  1. ↑ Conway Morris, S. (1993). "Ediacaran-like fossils in Cambrian Burgess Shale-type faunas of North America" (PDF). Palaeontology 36 (3): 593–635.
  2. ↑ Crimes, T. P.; McIlroy, D. (1999). "A biota of Ediacaran aspect from lower Cambrian strata on the Digermul Peninsula, Arctic Norway". Geological Magazine 136 (6): 633. doi:10.1017/S0016756899003179.
  3. ↑ Jensen, S. R.; Gehling, J. G.; Droser, M. L. (1998). "Ediacara-type fossils in Cambrian sediments". Nature 393 (6685): 567. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..567J. doi:10.1038/31215.
  4. ↑ Williams, G.C. 1997. Preliminary assessment of the phylogenetics of pennatulacean octocorals, with a reevaluation of Ediacaran frond-like fossils, and a synthesis of the history of evolutionary thought regarding the sea pens. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of Coelenterate Biology: 497-509.
  5. ↑ Antcliffe, J. B.; Brasier, M. D. (2007). "Charnia and sea pens are poles apart". Journal of the Geological Society 164: 49. doi:10.1144/0016-76492006-080.
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