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Charnia Masoni Fossil, New Walk Museum
''Charnia'' is an extinct genus of frond-like lifeforms belonging to the Ediacaran biota with segmented, leaf-like ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture (thus exhibiting glide reflection, or opposite isometry). The genus ''Charnia'' was named after Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England, where the first fossilised specimen was found; the species was named after Roger Mason, a schoolboy who was believed to have initially discovered it. ''Charnia'' is significant because it was the first Precambrian fossil to be recognized as such. The living organism grew on the sea floor, 570 to 550 million years ago, and is believed to have fed on nutrients in the water. Despite ''Charnia'' fern-like appearance, it is not a photosynthetic plant or alga because the nature of the fossil beds where specimens have been found implies that it originally lived in deep water, well below the photic zone where photosynthesis can occur. Diversity Severa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic geologic eon, Eon as well as the last of the so-called "Precambrian supereon", before the beginning of the subsequent Cambrian Period marks the start of the Phanerozoic Eon, where recognizable fossil evidence of life becomes common. The Ediacaran Period is named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, where trace fossils of a diverse community of previously unrecognized lifeforms (later named the Ediacaran biota) were first discovered by geologist Reg Sprigg in 1946. Its status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years. Although the period took namesake from the Ediacara Hills ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rangea
''Rangea'' is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs. ''Rangea'' was the first complex Precambrian macrofossil named and described anywhere in the world. ''Rangea'' was a centimetre- to decimetre-scale frond characterised by a repetitive pattern of self-similar branches and a sessile benthic lifestyle. Fossils are typically preserved as moulds and casts exposing only a leafy petalodium, and the rarity and incompleteness of specimens has made it difficult to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the entire organism.Sharp, Alana C., Alistair R. Evans, Siobhan A. Wilson, and Patricia Vickers-Rich. "First Non-destructive Internal Imaging of Rangea, an Icon of Complex Ediacaran Life." Precambrian Research 299 (2017): 303-08. doi: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.023 Fossilized ''Rangea'' consists of several vanes. Each vane has a foliate shape with a series of recessed furrows that run outwards at varying angle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newfoundland (island)
Newfoundland ( , ; , ) is a large island within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated off the eastern coast of the Northern America, North American mainland and the geographical region of Labrador. The island contains 29 percent of the province's land area, but is home to over 90% of the province's population, with about 60% of the province's population located on the small southeastern Avalon peninsula. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. With an area of , Newfoundland is the List of islands by area, world's 16th-largest island, List of Canadian islands by area, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside Northern Can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Sea
The White Sea (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; ) is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of the internal waters of Russia.A. D. Dobrovolskyi and B. S. Zalogi"Seas of USSR. White Sea" Moscow University (1982) (in Russian) Administratively, it is divided between the Arkhangelsk Oblast, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Oblast, Murmansk oblasts and the Republic of Karelia. The Port of Arkhangelsk, major port of Arkhangelsk is located on the White Sea. For much of Russia's history this was Russia's main centre of international maritime trade, conducted by the Pomors ("seaside settlers") from Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Kholmogory. In the modern era it became an important Soviet Union, Soviet naval and submarine base. The White Sea–Baltic Canal co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states since the lengthy conquest of Siberia, which began with the fall of the Khanate of Sibir in 1582 and concluded with the annexation of Chukotka in 1778. Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over , but home to roughly a quarter of Russia's population. Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Omsk are the largest cities in the area. Because Siberia is a geographic and historic concept and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia spans the entire expanse of land from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with the Ural River usually forming the southernmost portion of its western boundary, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacara Hills
Ediacara Hills ( ), also known as Ediacaran Hills, are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around north of the state capital of Adelaide city centre, Adelaide. They are within the Nilpena Ediacara National Park. The hills are known for being the location where significant trace fossils of Ediacaran biota, a group of previously unknown lifeforms were discovered, and have given their name to the geological period known as the Ediacaran. Mining The area has many old copper and silver mines from mining activity during the late 19th century. Mining was first reported there in 1888, with an area becoming known as the Ediacara Mines after more costeans were dug. Attempts to mine the area were carried out as recently as 1967 by C.R.A. Exploration, which used diamond drilling to explore the ground, but this was abandoned after they proved fruitless. As of 2012, the area was still able to be accessed for "licensed mineral exploration o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maplewell Group
The Maplewell Group is an Ediacaran lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) present in Leicestershire in the English Midlands. The strata are exposed in Charnwood Forest, west of Leicester. Besides a variety of volcaniclastic sandstones and mudstones, there are various breccias and tuffs. The tuffs which were laid down in water are fossiliferous; ''Charnia'', ''Charniodiscus'' and '' Cyclomedusa'', are all recorded from these rocks. With the discovery of '' Teichichnus'' in the overlying Swithland Formation of the Brand Group, alongside several other ichnogenera, researchers were able to confidentially date the Brand Group to the Lower Cambrian, which has led to the research and discovery of a major hiatus and diorite intrusion between this group and the Brand Group. Using Zircon U-Pb dating, a date is returned of , suggesting the intrusion is Lower Edicaran in age. This also caused the Brand Group to be taken out of the Charnian Surpergroup, making the Maplewell G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shepshedia
The "ivesheadiomorphs" are a group of fossilised structures known from Ediacaran localities in England and Newfoundland. They are considered to be taphomorphs, representing the poorly preserved biological remains of various contemporary taxa such as ''Charnia'', ''Charniodiscus'', ''Bradgatia'', ''Primocandelabrum'', ''Pectinifrons'' and others, that were effaced by partial decay by micro-organisms following death on the seafloor before burial by sediment. Ivesheadiomorph structures were previously described as distinct organisms, namely ''Ivesheadia lobata'' ("pizza disk"), ''Blackbrookia oaksi'', ''Shepshedia palmata'' and ''Pseudovendia charnwoodensis''. However, all of these fossils have since been rejected as valid taxa. See also * List of Ediacaran genera The existence of life, especially that of animals, before the Cambrian had long been the subject of debate in paleontology. The apparent suddenness of the Cambrian explosion had no firm explanation, and Charles Darwin h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
