Volborthella
Volborthella Temporal range:
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Glauconitic sandstone with Volborthella fossils, from Stadtmuseum Berlin.
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | †Agmata (?) |
Family: | †Salterellidae |
Genus: | †Volborthella Schmidt, 1888[2]
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Species: | †V. tenuis
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Binomial name | |
†Volborthella tenuis Schmidt, 1888[2] | |
Synonyms[3][4][5] | |
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Volborthella is an animal of uncertain classification, whose fossils pre-date 530 million years ago. It has been considered for a period a cephalopod. It has been speculated that it may in fact represent a
Halwaxiids, lobopods and echinoderms, demonstrate the diversity of organisms which may produce a scleritome of this nature.[7] The related Campitius was originally suggested to be part of a radula rather than a scleritome,[9] but is now considered a synonym of Volborthella.[3]
Volborthella is widespread, and a useful biostratigraphic indicator;Lower Cambrian rocks, appearing before the trilobites and co-existing with them for some time.[1]
Volborthella has been described as a 'failed attempt in mineralisation'; it constructed its wall by agglutinating grains of sediment, much like some
taphonomic hints that some form of lightly mineralised sheath may have enclosed its agglutinated shell.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e Hagadorn, J.W.; Waggoner, B.M. (2002). "The Early Cambrian problematic fossil Volborthella: New insights from the Basin and Range". In Corsetti, F.A. (ed.). Proterozoic-Cambrian of the Great Basin and Beyond, Pacific Section SEPM Book 93 (PDF). SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). pp. 135–150. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
- ^ a b Schmidt, F. (1888). "Über eine neuentdeckte untercambrische Fauna in Estland". Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. 7. 36 (2): 1–27, 2 pls.
- ^ .
- S2CID 132731070.
- ^ JSTOR 1302218.
- ISBN 0-12-728702-7
- ^ .
- .
- ^ Firby, J. B.; Durham, J. W. (1 November 1974). "Molluscan Radula from Earliest Cambrian". Journal of Paleontology. 48 (6): 1109–1338.