Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Coragyps · 12-25-2002, 06:45 AM

A very early "complex animal" has been found up in tgamble's neck of the woods:
link. It's a "sea pen" of Ediacaran age - way back at the start of the Cambrian.

lpetrich · 12-25-2002, 08:05 AM

Here is a page about charnians. These fossils are often identified as a sea pen, a colonial cnidarian that looks like a feather pen in an inkwell and that does filter feeding (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Alcyonaria, Pennatulacea).

Sea pens sometimes have flattened bases or holdfasts for attaching themselves to seafloors, and some of the late-Precambrian disk-shaped fossils may really be holdfasts.

[ December 25, 2002: Message edited by: lpetrich ]

ps418 · 12-28-2002, 10:22 AM

Here's the abstract for Narbonne's article:

Quote:

Newly discovered fronds of the Ediacaran index fossil Charnia from the Drook Formation of southeastern Newfoundland are the oldest large, architecturally complex fossils known anywhere. Two species are present: Charnia masoni, originally described from Charnwood Forest in central England and now known worldwide, may have ranged through as much as 30 m.y. of Ediacaran time, and C. wardi sp. nov., a new species of Charnia that consists of slender fronds to nearly 2 m in length, is the longest Ediacaran fossil yet described anywhere. These fossils, which are present midway between the glacial diamictites of the Gaskiers Formation (ca. 595 Ma) and the classic Ediacaran assemblage of the Mistaken Point Formation (565 � 3 Ma) 1500 m higher in the same section, provide our first glimpse of complex megascopic life after the meltdown of the �snowball Earth� glaciers.

Narbonne, G., and Gehling, J.G., 2003. Life after snowball: The oldest complex Ediacaran fossils. Geology: Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 27-30.

scigirl · 12-28-2002, 11:45 AM

Coragyps,

I was attempting to fix that link you provided (after the switchover the UBB code got mutated), but now it doesn't work. I think I messed it up - can you post it again? Thanks,

scigirl

12-25-2002, 06:45 AM	#1
Coragyps Veteran Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Snyder,Texas,USA Posts: 4,411	New old fossils! A very early "complex animal" has been found up in tgamble's neck of the woods: link. It's a "sea pen" of Ediacaran age - way back at the start of the Cambrian.

12-28-2002, 11:45 AM	#4
scigirl Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Seattle Posts: 4,261	Re: New old fossils! Coragyps, I was attempting to fix that link you provided (after the switchover the UBB code got mutated), but now it doesn't work. I think I messed it up - can you post it again? Thanks, scigirl

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12-25-2002, 08:05 AM	#2
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	Here is a page about charnians. These fossils are often identified as a sea pen, a colonial cnidarian that looks like a feather pen in an inkwell and that does filter feeding (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Alcyonaria, Pennatulacea). Sea pens sometimes have flattened bases or holdfasts for attaching themselves to seafloors, and some of the late-Precambrian disk-shaped fossils may really be holdfasts. [ December 25, 2002: Message edited by: lpetrich ]

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