Petalonamae

The petalonamids (Petalonamae) or frondomorphs are an extinct group of archaic animals typical of the Ediacaran biota, dating from around 635 million years ago to 516 million years ago. They are benthic and immobile animals, shaped like leaves, fronds (frondomorphic), feathers, or spindles. While initially considered algae or octocorals akin to sea pens, it is now believed that there are no living descendants of the group, which shares a probable relation to the Ediacaran animals known as vendozoans.

Petalonamae

Chris Woodrich · 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
AnimaliaPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 521 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 516 Mya.

Cambrian — about 2 of 3 occurrencesCambrian637–633 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences633–629 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences629–625 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences625–621 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences621–617 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences617–613 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences613–609 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences609–604 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences604–600 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences600–596 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences596–592 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences592–588 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences588–584 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences584–580 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences580–576 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences576–571 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences571–567 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences567–563 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences563–559 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences559–555 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences555–551 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences551–547 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences547–542 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences542–538 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences522–518 Mya — about 1 occurrence518–514 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences538.8 Mya521 Mya637 Mya514 Mya

3 occurrences of Petalonamae on record, most of them in the Cambrian. 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

3 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

3 formations

Mezen' — 64.38°N, 40.65°EYuanshan — 24.81°N, 102.58°EHeilinpu — 24.68°N, 102.58°E

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

Petalonamae and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Petalonamae and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

8 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Petalonamae, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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 Petalonamae

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

No 3D scan of Petalonamae 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 itAnimalia through timeFormations of the CambrianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pflug 1972