Enigmatic Ediacaran Conulariid-Like Fossil

[piranha]

Just published online and open-access!

Van Iten, H., Leme, J.D.M., Marques, A.C., & Simões, M.G. (2013)

Alternative interpretations of some earliest Ediacaran fossils from China.

Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 58(1):111-113

LINK

[clfossils]

Thank you for posting this, quite fascinating. It is interesting as one of our teachers here works on the Ediacaran.

[Bullsnake]

Thank you, Scott. That is really cool.

I wish I could find conularia with the soft parts preserved.

Still looking for that complete Ditomopyge, though.

[Missourian]

I've seen drawings showing soft parts like that. It's nice to see them in an actual specimen.

[Wrangellian]

Interesting... Has anyone ever found a Conulariid with tentacles or are those drawings just based on a hypothesis?

[pleecan]

Wow great article! Thank you Scott!

PL

[piranha]

Interesting... Has anyone ever found a Conulariid with tentacles or are those drawings just based on a hypothesis?

The drawing is based on the fossil figured in the paper. The hypothetical is the possible relationship of the 'conulariid-like' organism.

[Missourian]

The drawing is based on the fossil figured in the paper. The hypothetical is the possible relationship of the 'conulariid-like' organism.

Image1.jpg

I was referring to cartoon-like drawing in other publications like this one:

The book stated that conularids with carbonized tentacles have been collected from widely separated localities of the world. This is just one case where there are drawings of cool fossils, but you seldom see the actual specimens.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Missourian

[Auspex]

Anything that, directly or indirectly, throws light on these enigmatic organisms is a good thing.

[Wrangellian]

I have never seen conulariids with preserved tentacles.. I was just wondering (if they exist) how well do they correspond to the thing from the Lantian?

[Wrangellian]

Seems like a good match with the other pics, particularly if there are 4 or a multiple of 4 tentacles in the Lantian thing, as I think this would indicate 4-fold symmetry as in the conulariids.. and I think I see the 8th tentacle that the artist didn't draw in!

[piranha]

I have never seen conulariids with preserved tentacles.. I was just wondering (if they exist) how well do they correspond to the thing from the Lantian?

There are none to be found in any of the papers. I did find a few more artistic reconstructions with the middle examples from Treatise F Coelenterata (1953). Assuming the Ediacaran discovery is a conulariid it would be quite an important fossil considering no other soft parts have ever been described.

[Wrangellian]

That seems like cause for concern.. I don't know how confident they are about the addition of tentacles to Conularia but that thing from the Lantian could just as easily be some kind of seaweed, no? eg. brown algae/etc. though I hope it is an early animal.

BTW I see the Lantian deposits they say span 635-577 m.y.a... I wonder if that is the actual measured age or did they just quote the lower and upper(?) boundary for the Lower Ediacaran? What do you want to bet that Epoch/Series will be named the Lantianian?

[fossilcrazy]

I have found Conularids in the Eramosa Formation; known frequently to exhibit exquisite soft-bodied preservation. Unfortunately, specimens I found have preservation showing only colorations on the four sided test, but no indications of the animal that inhabited it.

[piranha]

I have found Conularids in the Eramosa Formation; known frequently to exhibit exquisite soft-bodied preservation. Unfortunately, specimens I found have preservation showing only colorations on the four sided test, but no indications of the animal that inhabited it.

Large Conularid SEL 3.05 + & - Color.jpg

Just to clarify your point that the Eramosa Fm. is known for soft-bodied preservation but there are no conulariids described in the literature with soft parts preserved. A couple fossils were in the ballpark but shown to have an alternative explanation. One of those examples cited is a single Silurian specimen from Iowa with possible silica replacement of relic soft parts. LINK Attached is an excellent summary and general consensus on this topic by the same author of the Ediacaran paper.

Van Iten, H., & Südkamp, W.H. (2010)

Exceptionally preserved conulariids and an edrioasteroid from the Hunsrück Slate (Lower Devonian, SW Germany).

Palaeontology 53(2):403-414

EDIT: A quick follow-up on the 2006 GSA abstract on the Iowa conulariids.

I just read the subsequent paper that was unable to demonstrate those claims and there was no mention at all of silica replaced soft parts.

John, D.L., Hughes, N.C., Galaviz, M.I., Gunderson, G.O., & Meyer, R. (2010)

Unusually Preserved Metaconularia manni (Roy, 1935) from the Silurian of Iowa, and the Systematics of the Genus.

Journal of Paleontology 84(1):1–31

Edited March 27, 2013 by piranha

[pleecan]

I have found Conularids in the Eramosa Formation; known frequently to exhibit exquisite soft-bodied preservation. Unfortunately, specimens I found have preservation showing only colorations on the four sided test, but no indications of the animal that inhabited it.

Large Conularid SEL 3.05 + & - Color.jpg

Nice John... maybe write up a paper and if you want help may be PvB ROM Emeritus can help.

PL

[pleecan]

^{Have only visited the Eramosa Lagerastatten just once. The preservation is just excellent .... a lot of weird looking stuff.}

Edited March 27, 2013 by pleecan