Dickinsonia
08-02-2023
1 min read
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Overview:
Recently, an alleged fossil discovered near Bhopal about two years ago and thought to be of the extinct Dickinsonia turned out to be the impression of a decayed beehive.
About Dickinsonia:
- Dickinsonia is an extinct genus of basal animal that lived during the late Ediacaran period on ocean floors around present-day’s Australia, Russia and Ukraine.
- The individual Dickinsonia typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval.
- Its affinities are presently unknown; its mode of growth is consistent with a stem-group bilaterian affinity, though some have suggested that it belongs to the fungi or even an “extinct kingdom”.
- The discovery of cholesterol molecules in fossils of Dickinsonia lends support to the idea that Dickinsonia was an animal.
- It is believed to be one of the key links between the early, simple organisms and the explosion of life in the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago.
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Key facts about the Ediacaran period
- It consisted of tubular and frond-shaped organisms that lived during this period.
- The Edicarian Period was about 20 million years before the emergence of modern animal life — a period known as the Cambrian explosion.
Q1) What is the significance of the Cambrian Period?
The Cambrian Period marks an important point in the history of life on Earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record.
Source: The earliest animal’ fossil discovered near Bhopal turns out to be a beehive.