일반명 : 벤디안 유자포동물화석(Vendian Cnidarian Fossils)

학명 : Nemiana simplex

분류 : 자포동물문(Phylum Cnidaria) 해파리강(Class Scyphozoa)

지질시대 : Precambrian, Vendian (600 Million Years Old)

해파리크기 : 10~23mm(Medusoids: 10-22 mm across)

발견지 : Fossil Site: White Sea Region, Russia

Nemaia Vendian Cnidarian Fossils

Cnidaria were some of the earliest fossils recognized as animals. This death assemblage of Vendian cnidarians (medusoids) predate the Cambrian Explosion by tens of millions of years. Many of the early attempts at diversity occurred during this late Proterozoic timeframe, and are represented in the fossil record, for example, in the Ediacara Biota of the Flinders Ranges of Australia. Many strange forms were present, some of that seem to not have any synonyms in extant animals. These jellyfish-like examples of Nemaia simplex are relatively attributable to jellyfish descendants alive today. The incredible soft-bodied preservation is believed to be the result of impressions made in a microbial mat contained within the sand, a phenomenon that is exceedingly rare in the fossil record.

Ediacaran Fossils of the Vendian White Sea Summer Coast, Northern Russia

The so called White Sea is located on the northern coast of Russia. The fossils of the area are currently undergoing intensive research, and some consider the site the richest source of Vendian (or Ediacaran) fauna in the fossil record.

The association of these fossils within the Tree of Life remains controversial. Some seem to have affinity to cnidarian, worm, or arthropod morphologies. Others resemble algal or lichen forms, or huge protozoans. Others some seem to represent alien kingdoms of life that left no descendants, and still others appear as uninterpretable bumps and blobs. Vendian rocks are also found to contain contain ichnofossils fossils probably made by worm-like animals traveling on a muddy sea floor.

Cyclomedusa is among the most highly represented members of the Ediacaran Biota, with specimens known from Neoproterozoic strata worldwide, including Ediacara (Australia), Norway, the Charnwood Forest in England, Northern China, Olenek, Ural Mountains and the White Sea Summer Coast of Russia, Newfoundland and Northwest Canada, Podolia in the Ukraine), Sonora Mexico. Early interpretations of Cyclomedusa a jellyfish. Others postulated benthic creature possibly an octacorallian or sea pen, and more recently, a microbial colony.