Hiemalora ✝
| Description | Hiemalora is a fossil of the Ediacaran biota, reaching around 3 cm in diameter, which superficially resembles a sea anemone. The genus has a sack-like body with faint radiating lines originally interpreted as tentacles, but discovery of a frond-like structure seemingly attached to some Heimalora has added weight to a competing interpretation: that it represents the holdfast of a larger organism. This interpretation would stand against its original classification in the medusoid Cnidaria; it would also consign a once-popular hypothesis placing Hiemalora in the chondrophores, on the basis of its tentacle structure, to the dustbin. Studies testing the feasibility of hypothesis investigated the possibilities that such fragile tentacles could be preserved, and concluded that it would be very improbable — especially as many Hiemalora bearing beds also contain such fossils as Cyclomedusa, but do not preserve the tentacles on these organisms. From Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiemalora, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Source Data |
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| Rank | genus | ||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomy (GBIF,PBDB) | Life : Animalia : Cnidaria : Hiemalora | ||||||||||||||||||
| Taxonomic Status (GBIF) | accepted | ||||||||||||||||||
| Classification (PBDB,GBIF) |
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| Scientific Name | Hiemalora Fedonkin, 1982 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Name Published In | Paleontologicheskii Zh. 1982 (2) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Opinions (PBDB) |
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| Status (PBDB) | extinct | ||||||||||||||||||
| Taxon Size (PBDB) | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| First Recorded Appearance | 635 - 541 Ma Neoproterozoic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last Recorded Appearance | 635 - 541 Ma Neoproterozoic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Environment | marine | ||||||||||||||||||
| Motility | stationary, attached | ||||||||||||||||||
| Diet | osmotroph | ||||||||||||||||||
| Taphonomy | no hard parts | ||||||||||||||||||
| Primary Reference (PBDB) | J. J. Sepkoski, Jr. 2002. A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 363:1-560 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiemalora |
Fossil Distribution
Subtaxa
| Name | Status | Common Name(s) | Fossil Occurrences | Oldest | Youngest |
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| Hiemalora pleiomorpha ✝ species | accepted (GBIF) listed (PBDB) | ||||
| Hiemalora stellaris ✝ species | listed (PBDB) | 11 | 635 Ma Neoproterozoic | 635 Ma Neoproterozoic | |
| Pinegia stellaris species | accepted (GBIF) | No associated record in PBDB | |||
Synonymy List
| Year | Name and Author |
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| 1980 | Pinegia Fedonkin p. 9 |
| 1982 | Hiemalora Fedonkin |
| 2002 | Hiemalora Sepkoski, Jr. |
| 2008 | Hiemalora Hofmann et al. p. 8 |
References
