The Hainan biota is a collection of macroscopic skeleton-free organisms, discovered in the early 1980s by Wang and Sun Weigo in the Precambrian sediments of China ( Hainan Island ) with an age of 840-740 Ma [1] . A similar biota was also found by M. B. Gnilovskaya in Russia, on the Timansky ridge ; its age is about 1 billion years [2] [3] [4] .
It has not yet been studied. It is only known that its constituent organisms ( Protoarenicola , Pararenicola , Sinosabellidites ) reached several centimeters in size (significantly inferior to Ediacarian ) and, apparently, had the form of segmented tubes, often goblet-shaped, with extensions at the end. Assumptions were made both about the animal ( wormlike ) [2] and algal [1] nature of these organisms.
It is very important that among these organisms there are neither medusoidal “disks” (as in the Ediacaran biota ), nor any forms close to the sponges (the most primitive of the modern groups of animals, with the exception of the trichoplax ,); Apparently, the Hainan biota cannot be considered as an ancestor either for the Ediacaran or even for the modern ( Phanerozoic ) [5] .
Notes
- 2 1 2 Lin Dong, Shuhai Xiao, Bing Shen, Xunlai Yuan, Xianqin Yan, Yongbo Peng. 2008. Restudy of worm-like carbonaceous compression fossils Protoarenicola, Pararenicola, and Sinosabellidites from early Neoproterozoic successions in North China . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 258 : 138-161.
- 2 1 2 Fedonkin MA 2003. The Protozoic Fossil Record . Paleontological Research 7 (1): 9–41. DOI : 10.2517 / prpsj.7.9 .
- ↑ Gnilovskaya M. B. The most ancient annelid morphs from the Upper Riphean of Timan. // Reports of RAS. - 1998. - V. 359, № 3. - p. 369-372.
- ↑ Gnilovskaya, M. B., Weiss, A. F., Bekker, Yu. R., Olovyanishnikov, V. G., Raaben, M. E. Preediacian Timan fauna (Annelidomorphs of the Upper Riphean) // Stratigraphy. Geological correlation. - 2000. - V. 8, № 4. - P. 11—39.
- ↑ Eskov K. Drafts of the Lord God // Knowledge - Power. - 2001. - № 6.
Literature
- Sun Weiguo, Wang Guixiang, Zhou Benhe. Macroscopic worm-like body fossils from the Upper Precambrian (900–700 Ma), Huainan district, Anhui, China and their stratigraphic and evolutionary significance // Precambrian Research. - 1986. - Vol. 31, № 4 . - P. 377-403. - DOI : 10.1016 / 0301-9268 (86) 90041-0 .