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Underground Vendobionta From Namibia
Author(s) -
Grazhdankin Dmitri,
Seilacher Adolf
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
palaeontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1475-4983
pISSN - 0031-0239
DOI - 10.1111/1475-4983.00227
Subject(s) - precambrian , geology , paleontology , context (archaeology) , bedding , turbidity current , ripple marks , taphonomy , turbidite , smothering , sediment , sedimentary depositional environment , biology , structural basin , pediatrics , horticulture , asphyxia , medicine , physics , ripple , voltage , quantum mechanics
The late Precambrian fossils from Namibia have generally been regarded as soft‐bodied organisms whose three‐dimensional preservation resulted from smothering in fluidized sand. The sedimentological context of Pteridinium and Namalia within a sandstone bed, however, allows us to distinguish between two taphocoenoses: (1) winnowed, laterally collapsed, current‐transported specimens accumulated as a lag deposit of turbidite‐like flows, and (2) specimens ‘floating’ in the top part of an event bed with their vanes extending upwards to the upper bedding surface. The second taphocoenosis is interpreted as an in situ preserved ‘infaunal’ community. The immobile underground life habit and the bizarre modes of growth of Pteridinium and Namalia do not fit any extinct or modern group of multicellular organisms. Similar statements can be made for Ernietta and Rangea , thus reviving the Vendobionta hypothesis.