Haootia quadriformis

Haootia quadriformis is an extinct animal belonging to the Ediacaran biota. Estimated to be about 560 million years old, H. quadriformis is identified as a cnidarian polyp, and represents the earliest known evidence for muscle tissue in an animal. Discovered in 2008 from Newfoundland in eastern Canada, it was formally described in 2014. It is the first Ediacaran organism discovered to show fossils of muscle fibres. Structural examination of the muscles and morphology indicate that the animal is a cnidarian, though, which class H. quadriformis belongs to was undetermined until a 2024 study found it to be a staurozoan.

Haootia quadriformis

D McIlroy, G Pasinetti, D Pérez-Pinedo, C McKean, S C Dufour, J J Matthews, L R Menon, R Nicholls, R S Taylor · CC BY 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
HaootiaPBDB

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 2 occurrences637–634 Mya — about 0.0 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 0.0 occurrences637 Mya537 Mya

2 occurrences of Haootia quadriformis 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

2 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

2 formations

Fermeuse — 48.50°N, 53.06°WTrepassey — 48.51°N, 53.05°W

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

Found in the same rock

5 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Haootia quadriformis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 2 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Haootia quadriformis

Credit
D McIlroy, G Pasinetti, D Pérez-Pinedo, C McKean, S C Dufour, J J Matthews, L R Menon, R Nicholls, R S Taylor
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itHaootia through time

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Liu et al. 2014