Frondophyllas

Frondophyllas is an extinct, monotypic animal genus in the clade Rangeomorpha. It was found at the Mistaken Point on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada in 2008 by Bamforth and Anderson. The single species is Frondophyllas grandis and as of 2021 only two specimens have been discovered. Both specimens are incomplete, but one extends to one meter long, making it one of the largest Ediacaran macrofossils. The species name: grandis, comes from its size, and the genus name: Frondophyllas means "frond with leaves". The organism has a base structure with numerous fronds attached to it. It is the only Ediacaran organism to have distinct leaflets. Evidence suggests that F. grandis may have been tethered to the seafloor and used these leaflets to "filter feed", or live off nutrients provided by a current. One of the reasons fossils of this species are so rare is because it was a soft-bodied organism. It is believed that F. grandis was preserved because it was caught beneath quickly solidifying volcanic ash. Many of the Mistaken Point fossils were preserved this way.

A picture published with the record for Frondophyllas. What it shows has not been checked.

Kalenmurphy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
RangeomorphaPBDB

Time the record covers

At most 97 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 635 Mya and 538.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 0 of 4 occurrences637–634 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences634–630 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences630–627 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences627–624 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences624–620 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences620–617 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences617–614 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences614–610 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences610–607 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences607–604 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences604–600 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences600–597 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences597–594 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences594–590 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences590–587 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences587–584 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences584–580 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences580–577 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences577–574 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences574–570 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences570–567 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences567–564 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences564–560 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences560–557 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences557–554 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences554–550 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences550–547 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences547–544 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences544–540 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences540–537 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences637 Mya537 Mya

4 occurrences of Frondophyllas on record. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Briscal — 46.62°N, 53.17°WMistaken Point — 46.63°N, 53.19°WTrepassey — 46.63°N, 53.16°WFermeuse — 47.65°N, 53.22°W

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The named rock units Frondophyllas has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Found in the same rock

27 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Frondophyllas, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Frondophyllas

Credit
Kalenmurphy
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Frondophyllas was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itRangeomorpha through time

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bamforth and Narbonne 2009