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
seem
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 |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
References: