Anfesta
|
Anfesta stankovskii Temporal range: Ediacaran, around 555 Ma |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Trilobozoa Fedonkin, 1985 |
| Family: | Albumaresidae Fedonkin, 1985 |
| Genus: | Anfesta Fedonkin, 1984 |
| Species: | A. stankovskii Fedonkin, 1984 |
Anfesta stankovskii is a tri-radially symmetrical fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran (Vendian) seafloor. It is a member of the extinct group Trilobozoa.
The generic and specific names of the Anfesta stankovskii honour the Arkhangel'sk geologist Anatoliy F. Stankovskii.
Fossils of Anfesta stankovskii are known from deposits of the Verkhovka and Yorga formations on the Karakhta River in Onega Peninsula and Zimnii Bereg (Winter Coast) of the White Sea, Arkhangelsk Region, Russia.
Anfesta fossils are preserved as low negative impressions on the lower surfaces of sandstone beds. The fossil has a round, three-lobed form bounded by a linear outer margin. Its surface is covered by dendritic furrows that branch out from three radial oval ridges in the center to the outer margin of the fossil. The lobes are regular in form, and are not twisted as in Albumares and Tribrachidium.
The diameters of known specimens vary from 5 to 18 millimeteres.
Anfesta was originally described by Mikhail Fedonkin as a free-swimming scyphozoa-like medusa. The branched furrows on the fossil were interpreted as imprints of a system of internal radial canals, and the three oval ridges as imprints of gonads.
A year later, Fedonkin appointed such fossil animals as Anfesta, Albumares and Tribrachidium to the separate group Trilobozoa, populated by three-lobed, radially symmetric, coelenterate-grade animals that only superficially resemble cnidarians. Originally, Trilobozoa was established as a class within the phylum Coelenterata, but since Coelenterata was divided into separate phyla - Cnidaria and Ctenophora - the Trilobozoa have been transferred to rank of phylum.
...
Wikipedia