Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution

@article{Seilacher1992VendobiontaAP,
  title={Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution},
  author={Adolf Seilacher},
  journal={Journal of the Geological Society},
  year={1992},
  volume={149},
  pages={607 - 613}
}
  • A. Seilacher
  • Published 1 July 1992
  • Environmental Science
  • Journal of the Geological Society
The non-availability of biomineralized skeletons and low levels of predation led Vendian evolution along strange avenues. The Ediacara-type Vendobionta appear to represent a kingdom, in which foliate shapes, large sizes and the necessary compartmentalization were achieved by quilting of the skin rather than by multicellularity. Psammocorallia, in contrast, are interpreted as coelenterates that constructed an internal sand skeleton. Both were immobile soft-bottom dwellers that had high… 
View on Publisher
386 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
48
Background Citations
169
Methods Citations
7
Results Citations
10

Figures from this paper

386 Citations

The nature of vendobionts

Abstract The notion that the majority of Ediacaran fossils do not represent stem groups to modern metazoan phyla is now increasingly accepted. Nevertheless, the further claim of the vendobiont…

Underground Vendobionta From Namibia

The late Precambrian fossils from Namibia have generally been regarded as soft‐bodied organisms whose three‐dimensional preservation resulted from smothering in fluidized sand. The sedimentological…

Biomat-related lifestyles in the Precambrian

The strange biota of Neoproterozoic sea bottoms become more understandable if we assume that otherwise soft sediments were sealed by firm and erosion-resistant biomats. This allowed "mat encrusters"…

Lower Cambrian Vendobionts from China and Early Diploblast Evolution

A frondlike fossil, Stromatoveris, is described from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Yunnan, China) that is strikingly similar to Ediacaran vendobionts and has important implications for the early evolution of this phylum and related diploblasts, some of which independently evolved a frondose habit.

Competition in a Precambrian world: palaeoecology of Ediacaran fronds

It is believed that the frond shape most likely represents a common need to elevate a feeding apparatus higher in the water-column to feed from the upper (> 20 cm) tiers, and represents a shared ecology, not ancestry.

Assemblage palaeoecology of the Ediacara biota: The unabridged edition?

Symmetry of Vendobionta (Late Precambrian Metazoa)

Vendobionta is a large group of Precambrian Metazoa, which is characterized by a set of symmetry elements arranged in a certain system of mutual subordination and typically not found in unitary…

Spindle-shaped Ediacara fossils from the Mistaken Point assemblage, Avalon Zone, Newfoundland

The Mistaken Point assemblage of the Ediacara fossils is dominated by rangeomorphs with homologous fractal branching elements. The most distinctive are the fusiform fossils, herein named Fractofusus…

Trace Fossils in Evolutionary Paleoecology

Modular Construction of Early Ediacaran Complex Life Forms

Newly discovered, exceptionally preserved, soft-bodied fossils near Spaniard's Bay in eastern Newfoundland exhibit features not previously described from Ediacaran (terminal Neoproterozoic) fossils.…
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 20 REFERENCES

Vendozoa: Organismic construction in the Proterozoic biosphere

Seilacher, Adolf 1989 07 15: Vendozoa: Organismic construction in the Proterozoic biosphere. Lethaia, Vol. 22. pp. 229–239. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164. Ediacara-type impressions of large, but flat and…

The Ediacarian Period and Syste: Metazoa Inherit the Earth

The Ediacarian, here defined as the initial period and system of the Phanerozoic Eon, is characterized by the oldest known multicellular animal life, represented in the type region by 26 species in 18 genera and 4 or more phyla, plus simple metazoan surface tracks.

Burgess Shale Faunas and the Cambrian Explosion

  • S. Morris
  • Geography, Environmental Science
    Science
  • 1989
Soft-bodied marine faunas from the Lower and Middle Cambrian, exemplified by the Burgess Shale of British Columbia, are a key component in understanding the major adaptive radiations at the beginning…

Changes in the trace fossil biota across the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundary

  • T. Crimes
  • Environmental Science, Geography
    Journal of the Geological Society
  • 1992
Trace fossils became relatively diverse in shallow-water clastic seas in the late Proterozoic (Vendian), with a further significant increase in abundance, diversity and complexity in the Tommotian…

Umbrella‐shaped fossils (?) from the lower proterozoic of the northern territory of Australia

Abstract Umbrella‐shaped objects, presumably fossils, were collected from the Lower Proterozoic Noltenius Formation at two localities about 80 miles south of Darwin. Radial and concentric forms are…

Oxygen requirements, biology and phylogenetic significance of the late Precambrian worm Dickinsonia, and the evolution of the burrowing habit

Dickinsonia was a very thin subcircular to elliptical worm that grew to about a metre in length and was probably an annelid, but may have been neither a polychaete nor an oligochaete, and its geometry and ontogeny suggest that its similarity to the living discoidalpolychaete Spinther is due to convergence.

EL PALEOZOICO INFERIOR DE ARGENTINA SEGUN SUS TRAZAS FOSILES

A revision of the described trace fossils on rock from the Lower Palaeozoic in Argentina. A synthetic conspectus on the main concepts ernployed in the trace fossils study, including their morphology,…

The dawn of animal life

Trace fossils and correlation of late Precambrian and early Cambrian strata

  • T. Crimes
  • Geography, Environmental Science
    Geological Magazine
  • 1987
Abstract Trace fossils are abundant and diverse in many clastic sequences spanning the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary and may prove to be the most useful palaeontological method for global correlation…

Tectonically deformed sand volcanoes in a Precambrian greywacke, northern territory of Australia

Abstract Structures previously described as umbrella‐shaped probable fossils are shown to be tectonically deformed cylindrical to conical sand volcanoes. They occur in the upper parts of greywacke…