#Namibia 🇳🇦 has yielded many #fossils of #Ediacarans, ~600 million year old #organisms that shed light on the early #evolution of #animals. One iconic #Ediacaran, #Rangea, was first described from Namibia, where a few #specimens are preserved in #3D, giving an idea of what this #ancient #enigma might have looked like when alive.
Photo from Vickers-Rich et al., 2013 (co-authored by members of the #Namibian #Geological Survey)
#FossilAdventCalendar Day 4
The oddest and - at over 560 million years in age - oldest #fossil featured in this #AdventCalendar is Fractofusus misrai from #Newfoundland 🇨🇦. This specimen in the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is from #MistakenPoint, one of the sites preserving the #Ediacaran #biota, the term for some of our planet's oldest #multicellular #fossils. Lots of questions remain about these ancient enigmas, among them, were #Ediacarans #animals or members of a different branch of the tree of life?
John Orcutt