@dmcediacaran.bsky.socialThis #FossilFriday is brought to you by the #Ediacaran animals of #Newfoundland. The oldest staurozoan cnidarian #Mamsetia manunis, its younger better preserved cousin #Haootia quadriformis and the 551 Ma stem #ctenophore #Edrathina obditchia alongside the candidate poriferans Thectardis & Lydonia.
@dmcediacaran.bsky.social#FossilFriday this week is brought to you by the paratypes of #Edrathina from the #InnerMeadow lagerstätte. Both #Ediacaran aged fossils have fallen atop #rangeomorph fossils meaning part of the calyx of both was not impressed onto the seafloor. This kind of evidence suggests an upright life habit.
@dmcediacaran.bsky.socialWe names the #Ediacaran #Edrathina obditchia from #InnerMeadow after we had decided it was a stem ctenophore. Ctenophores are also known as comb-jellies. Following recent convention we have used Beothuk words for naming.
Edrathin means comb & Obditch means beast. So the name means “comb beast”
@dmcediacaran.bsky.socialOne of the best bits of being a palaeobiologist is attempting to visualize our weird and wonderful creatures so here is a digital painting of my post-mortem reconstruction of #Edrathina next to the 🐡 #Haootia reconstruction of @bobnichollsart.bsky.social
if you want to read about them free then…
@dmcediacaran.bsky.socialHappy #FossilFriday! The Ediacaran of #Newfoundland is famous for its animal fossils. The most iconic are the muscular #Staurozoa #Haootia and #Mamsetia and I think our new 551Ma #Edrathina is probably comparably important , being the oldest relative of comb-jellies, another early animal group.
