Pywackia

Pywackia is a contentious Cambrian fossil that has been interpreted as the earliest (total group) Bryozoan, and the only representative of that phylum in the Cambrian period.[1] Its Bryozoan credentials have been called into question,[2] but the octocoral alternative is equally unconvincing, and there are reasons to suggest a position in the Stenolaemata stem lineage.[3]

Pywackia
Temporal range: Late Cambrian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: incertae sedis
Genus: †Pywackia
Species:
†P. baileyi
Binomial name
†Pywackia baileyi
Landing in Landing et al., 2010

References
  1. Landing, E.; English, A.; Keppie, J. D. (2010). "Cambrian origin of all skeletalized metazoan phyla--Discovery of Earth's oldest bryozoans (Upper Cambrian, southern Mexico)". Geology. 38 (6): 547. doi:10.1130/G30870.1.
  2. Taylor, P. D.; Berning, B. R.; Wilson, M. A. (2013). "Reinterpretation of the Cambrian 'Bryozoan' Pywackia as an Octocoral". Journal of Paleontology. 87 (6): 984. doi:10.1666/13-029.
  3. Ed Landing, Jonathan B. Antcliffe, Martin D. Brasier, Adam B. English (2015). "Distinguishing Earth's oldest known bryozoan (Pywackia, late Cambrian) from pennatulacean octocorals (Mesozoic—Recent)". Journal of Paleontology. 89 (2): 292–317. doi:10.1017/jpa.2014.26.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.