White Sea
Fossil Sites
 

Ediacaran Fossils of the Vendian White Sea Summer Coast, Northern Russia

Also see :
Fossil Sites
Precambrian Fossils
Precambrian Paleobiology

 

The so called White Sea is located on the northern coast of Russia. The fossils of the area are currently undergoing intensive research, and some consider the site the richest source of Vendian (or Ediacaran) fauna in the fossil record.

The association of these fossils within the Tree of Life remains controversial. Some Vendian Biotaseem to have affinity to cnidarian, worm, or arthropod morphologies. Others resemble algal or lichen forms, or huge protozoans. Others some seem to represent alien kingdoms of life that left no descendants, and still others appear as uninterpretable bumps and blobs. Vendian rocks are also found to contain contain ichnofossils fossils probably made by worm-like animals traveling on a muddy sea floor.

Cyclomedusa is among the most highly represented members of the Ediacaran Biota, with specimens known from Neoproterozoic strata worldwide, including Ediacara (Australia), Norway, the Charnwood Forest in England, Northern China, Olenek, Ural Mountains and the White Sea Summer Coast of Russia, Newfoundland and Northwest Canada, Podolia in the Ukraine), Sonora Mexico. Early interpretations of Cyclomedusa a jellyfish. Others postulated benthic creature possibly an octacorallian or sea pen, and more recently, a microbial colony.

White Sea Ediacaran Biota

Kimberella
Cyclomedusa
Hiemalora
Kimberella quadrata
Protomollusc (?)
Dickinsonia sp.
Annelid (?)
Nemaia simplex
 
Dickinsonia
Parvancorina minchami
Arthropod (?)
Nemaia simplex
Phylum Cnidaria
 

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