Vendobiont

The Vendobionten are a group of extinct creatures that lived in the era of Ediacarian ( formerly called Vendian ). They were the most numerous representatives of the Ediacaran fauna. Its characteristic fossils that were found in relatively coarse-grained sandstones, can hardly be assigned to the forms of today's creatures. The term " Vendobionten " was coined by the German geologist Adolf Seilacher, which they interpreted as a giant single-celled organisms.

Features

Vendobioten were mostly flat organisms with a feathery structure. Their fossilized footprints remember ferns or fish fillets. Although Vendobionten were only a few millimeters thick, so they could reach a length of sometimes more than a meter. They had no hard parts, such as a skeleton or a tank. On the inner and outer structure of Vendobioten there are many speculations. Often the appearance of these organisms is compared with thin liquid-filled air mattresses. The feathery structure is viewed by the supporters of single- theory as a chambering with which the organisms circumvented the size restriction of unicellular organisms.

Way of life

About the lifestyle of Vendobionten there are few clues. From a widespread lack of fossil traces of movement was concluded that most of their representatives were immobile. Presumably they were grazing over a at that time widespread on the seafloor lawn of microorganisms ( biomat ) and digested this. Alternatively, a symbiotic life with microorganisms is discussed. From the absolute lack of bite marks on fossils of Ediacarian was concluded that neither the Vendobionten predators were still these were suspended.

Your practically complete disappearance at the beginning of the Cambrian gives the researchers on many puzzles. Maybe they were easy victims of the first predators. Your livelihood, the biomat, may also have been of organisms that hid in the sandy ocean floor off the booty hunters destroyed ( Verdun Syndrome ).

System

The systematic classification of the Vendobioten is uncertain and is discussed controversially. Some paleontologists are doubts that the Vendobionten are at all related to present-day organisms. You will see the Vendobionten as an extinct kingdom, or at least as a extinct animal strain. Adolf Seilacher, it placed the protozoa and described it as " one-celled dinosaur ". However, other scientists assign them to the realm of multicellular animals ( Metazoa ) mainly. Based on their characteristics, they were compared with cnidarians, Vielborstern or Turbellaria. Also, an assignment to the phylum Placozoen is discussed.

Also, an association with other realms of living beings was discussed. Maybe they were mushrooms, optional under symbiosis with photosynthetic microorganisms operated lived as lichens.

The Vendobionten include the following genera have been assigned:

Discovery history

The discovery of Vendobioten goes back to the Australian geologist Reginald Sprigg Claude. For excursions in the Ediacaran hills north of the Australian city of Adelaide he discovered fossils of prehistoric unique soft-bodied organisms that initially he dated in the early Cambrian. The term " Vendobionten " is primarily due to the German geologist Adolf Seilacher, who summarized at first these creatures to their own kingdom ( " Vendozoa " ) and later to a separate phylum.

Ediacara biota Trichoplax Reg Sprigg Digital Object Identifier
800360
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