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Palaeobiology of the reclining rangeomorph Beothukis from the Ediacaran Mistaken Point Formation of southeastern Newfoundland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Duncan McIlroy ,
Jessica Hawco ,
Christopher McKean ,
Robert Nicholls ,
Giovanni Pasinetti  and
Rod Taylor Open the ORCID record for Rod Taylor [Opens in a new window]
Duncan McIlroy*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Jessica Hawco
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Christopher McKean
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Robert Nicholls
Affiliation:
Palaeocreations, Kingswood, BristolBS15 9QQ, United Kingdom
Giovanni Pasinetti
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
Rod Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), St John’s, NLA1B 3X5, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Duncan McIlroy, Email: dmcilroy@mun.ca
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Abstract

Beothukis mistakensis from the Ediacaran System of Newfoundland, Canada demonstrates complex fractal-like morphology through the development of primary-, secondary- and tertiary-order Rangea-like units. The primary-order rangeomorph units observed in B. mistakensis are tightly juxtaposed, show no evidence of being independent of one another and are made up of chamber-like secondary-order – probably mesoglea-filled – units. The growth of these rangeomorph units demonstrates that the frond developed from the tip towards the basal region through ontogeny. The tertiary-order units of Beothukis are considered to represent surface morphology on the secondary-order units. This is in contrast to palaeobiological reconstructions of Beothukis that invoke three-dimensional fractal-like branches with independent units, which has been used to infer an osmotrophic mode of life. It is considered here that the fractal-like morphology of the lower surface of B. mistakensis was an adaptation to increase surface area to volume ratio. The quilted morphology of Beothukis proposed here is consistent with a sessile, reclining, phagocytotic and/or chemosymbiotic mode of life similar to that invoked for the reclining rangeomorph Fractofusus.

Keywords

PrecambrianpalaeontologyfossilAvalonia
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 159 , Special Issue 7: THEMATIC ISSUE: The Ediacaran System and the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition , July 2022 , pp. 1160 - 1174
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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