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Margaretia Dorus
''Margaretia'' is a frondose organism known from the middle Cambrian Burgess shale and the Kinzers Formation of Pennsylvania. Its fronds reached about 10 cm in length and are peppered with a range of length-parallel oval holes. It was originally interpreted as an alcyonarian coral. It was later reclassified as a green alga closely resembling modern '' Caulerpa'' by D.F. Satterthwait in her Ph.D. thesis in 1976,Donna Fields Satterthwait, Paleobiology and Paleoecology of Middle Cambrian Algae from Western North America, Ph.D. Thesis University of California at Los Angeles, 1976. a finding supported by Conway Morris and Robison in 1988.S.Conway Morris and R.A. Robison, "More soft-bodied Animals and Algae from the Middle Cambrian of Utah and British Columbia", University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Paper 122, pages 8-11, 1988/ref> More recently, it has been treated as an organic tube, that is used as nest of hemichordate ''Oesia ''Oesia disjuncta'' is a monospeci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleoart
Paleoart (also spelled palaeoart, paleo-art, or paleo art) is any original artistic work that attempts to depict prehistoric life according to scientific evidence. Works of paleoart may be representations of fossil remains or imagined depictions of the living creatures and their ecosystems. While paleoart is typically defined as being scientifically informed, it is often the basis of depictions of prehistoric animals in popular culture, which in turn influences public perception of and fuels interest in these animals. The word paleoart is also used in other informal sense, as a name for prehistoric art, most often cave paintings. Alternative concept of this term is the domain of archeological society. The term "paleoart"–which is a portmanteau of ''paleo'', the Ancient Greek word for "old", and "art"–was introduced in the late 1980s by Mark Hallett for art that depicts subjects related to paleontology, but is considered to have originated as a visual tradition in early 180 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frondose
Frondosity (from Latin ''frondōsus'' meaning 'leafy') is the property of an organism that normally flourishes with fronds or leaf-like structures. Many frondose organisms are thalloid and lack the organization of tissues into organs, with the exception of ferns. Frondosity is significant mainly for distinguishing particular types of macroscopic algae, and in paleobotany and paleontology, by analyzing features present in fossil biota. Frondose macroalgae are relevant to the ecology of many marine and coastal ecosystems. Large frondose algae play an important role in the creation and functioning of healthy ecosystems from kelp forests to similar habitats. Yet, in coral reefs, frondose seaweed can be recognized as harmful due to the link between excessive blooms and coastal eutrophication. Ediacaran biota The fossil record from the Ediacaran Period is sparse, as more easily fossilized hard-shelled animals had yet to evolve. Most fossils of the time are only faint impressi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft-part imprints. The rock unit is a black shale and crops out at a number of localities near the town of Field in Yoho National Park Yoho National Park ( ) is a National Parks of Canada, national park of Canada. It is located within the Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordered ... and the Kicking Horse Pass. Another outcrop is in Kootenay National Park 42 km to the south. History and significance The Burgess Shale was discovered by palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott, Charles Walcott on 30 August 1909, towards the end of the season's fieldwork. He returned in 1910 with his sons, daughter, and wif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinzers Formation
The Kinzers Formation is a geologic formation in Pennsylvania. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cambrian Period. The base of the Kinzers Formation is primarily a dark-brown shale. The middle is a gray and white spotted limestone and, locally, marble having irregular partings. The top is a sandy limestone which weathers to a fine-grained, friable, porous, sandy mass. Type section Named from exposures at a railroad cut at Kinzers, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.Stose, G.W., and Jonas, A.I., 1922. ''The lower Paleozoic section in southeastern Pennsylvania'', Washington Academy of Sciences, Journal v. 12, no. 5, p. 358-36/ref> Other outcrops The Kinzers overlies the Vintage Dolomite at the type section of the Vintage at a railroad cut at Vintage, Pennsylvania. High quality fossil specimens (''Lagerstätte'') were obtained from the Noah Getz Quarry, one mile north of Rohrerstown, Pennsylvania, but the quarry location is overgrown and disturbed by development. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the nation with over 13 million residents as of 2020. It is the 33rd-largest state by area and ranks ninth among all states in population density. The southeastern Delaware Valley metropolitan area comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth most populous city. Another 2.37 million reside in Greater Pittsburgh in the southwest, centered around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest and Western Pennsylvania's largest city. The state's su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcyonarian
Octocorallia (also known as Alcyonaria) is a class of Anthozoa comprising around 3,000 species of water-based organisms formed of colonial polyps with 8-fold symmetry. It includes the blue coral, soft corals, sea pens, and gorgonians (sea fans and sea whips) within three orders: Alcyonacea, Helioporacea, and Pennatulacea. These organisms have an internal skeleton secreted by mesoglea and polyps with eight tentacles and eight mesentaries. As with all Cnidarians these organisms have a complex life cycle including a motile phase when they are considered plankton and later characteristic sessile phase. Octocorals have existed at least since the Ordovician period, as shown by Maurits Lindström's findings in the 1970s, however recent work has shown a possible Cambrian origin. Biology Octocorals resemble the stony corals in general appearance and in the size of their polyps, but lack the distinctive stony skeleton. Also unlike the stony corals, each polyp has only eight tentacles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caulerpa
''Caulerpa'' is a genus of seaweeds in the family Caulerpaceae (among the green algae). They are unusual because they consist of only one cell with many nuclei, making them among the biggest single cells in the world. A species in the Mediterranean can have a stolon more than long, with up to 200 fronds. This species can be invasive from time to time. Referring to the crawling habit of its thallus, the name means 'stem (that) creeps', from the Ancient Greek ' (, ‘stalk’) and ' (, ‘to creep’). Taxonomy and nomenclature First described by Jean Vincent Lamouroux in 1809, ''Caulerpa'' is the only genus under the family Caulerpaceae, from the order Bryopsidales, class Ulvophyceae, and phylum Chlorophyta. Through the use of ''tuf''A gene sequencing, it was revealed that ''Pseudochlorodesmis'' F. Børgesen was a sister clade of ''Caulerpa''. Cremen et al. proposed a new classification scheme in Bryopsidales, wherein Caulerpaceae and Halimedaceae were described as sister fami ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hemichordate
Hemichordata is a phylum which consists of triploblastic, enterocoelomate, and bilaterally symmetrical marine deuterostome animals, generally considered the sister group of the echinoderms. They appear in the Lower or Middle Cambrian and include two main classes: Enteropneusta (acorn worms), and Pterobranchia. A third class, Planctosphaeroidea, is known only from the larva of a single species, ''Planctosphaera pelagica''. The class Graptolithina, formerly considered extinct, is now placed within the pterobranchs, represented by a single living genus ''Rhabdopleura''. Acorn worms are solitary worm-shaped organisms. They generally live in burrows (the earliest secreted tubes) and are deposit feeders, but some species are pharyngeal filter feeders, while the family Torquaratoridae are free living detritivores. Many are well known for their production and accumulation of various halogenated phenols and pyrroles. Pterobranchs are filter-feeders, mostly colonial, living in a collageno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oesia
''Oesia disjuncta'' is a monospecific genus known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. 1147 specimens of ''Oesia'' are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 2.18% of the community. Despite some similarities to the chaetognaths, its affinity is unknown, though recent data suggest it may be affiliated with hemichordate Hemichordata is a phylum which consists of triploblastic, enterocoelomate, and bilaterally symmetrical marine deuterostome animals, generally considered the sister group of the echinoderms. They appear in the Lower or Middle Cambrian and include ...s. References Burgess Shale fossils Enigmatic prehistoric animal genera {{cambrian-animal-stub Cambrian genus extinctions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgess Shale Fossils
The fossils of the Burgess Shale, like the Burgess Shale itself, formed around 505 million years ago in the Mid Cambrian period. They were discovered in Canada in 1886, and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 65,000 specimens in a series of field trips up to the alpine site from 1909 to 1924. After a period of neglect from the 1930s to the early 1960s, new excavations and re-examinations of Walcott's collection continue to reveal new species, and statistical analysis suggests that additional discoveries will continue for the foreseeable future. Stephen Jay Gould's book '' Wonderful Life'' describes the history of discovery up to the early 1980s, although his analysis of the implications for evolution has been contested. The fossil beds are in a series of shale layers, averaging and totalling about in thickness. These layers were deposited against the face of a high undersea limestone cliff. All these features were later raised up above current sea level during the cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheeler Shale
The Wheeler Shale (named by Charles Walcott) is a Cambrian ( 507 Ma) fossil locality world-famous for prolific agnostid and ''Elrathia kingii'' trilobite remains (even though many areas are barren of fossils) and represents a Konzentrat-Lagerstätte. Varied soft bodied organisms are locally preserved, a fauna (including ''Naraoia'', ''Wiwaxia'' and ''Hallucigenia'') and preservation style (carbonaceous film) normally associated with the more famous Burgess Shale. As such, the Wheeler Shale also represents a Konservat-Lagerstätten. Together with the Marjum Formation and lower Weeks Formation, the Wheeler Shale forms of limestone and shale exposed in one of the thickest, most fossiliferous and best exposed sequences of Middle Cambrian rocks in North America. At the type locality of Wheeler Amphitheater, House Range, Millard County, western Utah, the Wheeler Shale consists of a heterogeneous succession of highly calcareous shale, shaley limestone, mudstone and thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
