Scratch Traces of Large Ediacara Bilaterian Animals

Ediacara fan-shaped sets of paired scratches Kimberichnus teruzzii from the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia, and the White Sea region of Russia, represent the earliest known evidence in the fossil record of feeding traces associated with the responsible bilaterian organism...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of paleontology Vol. 88; no. 2; pp. 284 - 298
Main Authors Gehling, James G, Runnegar, Bruce N, Droser, Mary L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA The Paleontological Society 01.03.2014
Cambridge University Press
Paleontological Society
Subjects
Algae
Animals
Arctic Ocean
Arthropoda
Australasia
Australia
Barents Sea
Bilateria
Biota
Cambrian
Commonwealth of Independent States
Ediacara
Ediacaran
Excavation
feeding
Flinders Ranges
Fossils
ichnofossils
Invertebrata
invertebrate
Kimberella quadrata
Kimberichnus teruzzii
Lava
Marine
Mollusca
Mollusks
morphology
National parks
Neoproterozoic
Ocean floor
Organisms
paleoecology
Paleontology
Precambrian
Proterozoic
Rawnsley Quartzite
Russian Federation
Shellfish
South Australia
Stratigraphy
taxonomy
Trace fossils
upper Precambrian
White Sea
Australia
Namibia
South Australia Australia
Russia
ISW, Australia, South Australia
INW, Russia
PNE, White Sea
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Summary:Ediacara fan-shaped sets of paired scratches Kimberichnus teruzzii from the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia, and the White Sea region of Russia, represent the earliest known evidence in the fossil record of feeding traces associated with the responsible bilaterian organism. These feeding patterns exclude arthropod makers and point to the systematic feeding excavation of seafloor microbial mats by large bilaterians of molluscan grade. Since the scratch traces were made into microbial mats, animals could crawl over previous traces without disturbing them. The trace maker is identified as Kimberella quadrata, whose death masks co-occur with the mat excavation traces in both Russia and South Australia. The co-occurrence of animals and their systematic feeding traces in the record of the Ediacara biota supports previous trace fossil evidence that bilaterians existed globally before the Cambrian explosion of life in the ocean.
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ISSN:0022-3360
1937-2337
DOI:10.1666/13-054