Namapoikia
| Namapoikia Temporal range: (Terminal Ediacaran)
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Porifera (?) |
| Genus: | †Namapoikia Wood et al. 2002 |
| Species: | †N. rietoogensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Namapoikia rietoogensis Wood et al. 2002
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Namapoikia rietoogensis is among the earliest known animals to produce a calcareous (probably aragonite[1]) skeleton.[2] Known from the Ediacaran period, before the Cambrian explosion of calcifying animals, the long-lived organism grew up to a metre in diameter and resembles a colonial sponge.[3][4] It was an encruster, filling vertical fissures in the reefs in which it originally grew.[5]
The fossil was first found in the Omkyk Member of the
Its mineralogy and accretionary style has been compared with that of the Lophotrochozoans,[6] though its unfamiliar morphology suggests a stem-group or deeper affiliation to this group.[7]
It grew in spurts, first emplacing an organic skeleton, then filling this in with aragonite.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Zhuravlev, A.Y., Wood, R.A., and Penny, A.M. (2015). Ediacaran skeletal metazoan interpreted as a lophophorate. Proc. R. Soc. B 282, 20151860. Available at: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rspb.2015.1860.
- S2CID 27418253.
- ^ PMID 29321296.
- S2CID 9515357.
- S2CID 52231115.
- PMID 26538593.
- .
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