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Parvancorina minchami is an enigmatic fossil that lived in the Upper Proterozoic about 540 million years ago, belonging to the Ediacara fauna with most of the fossils found in Australia. It has a particular shield shape, characterized by a sort of crest that is positioned on the central axis and another crest positioned in the front area of the body, forming a sort of arch. Most likely, their anatomy made it possible to create a sort of water flow around the body, thus guaranteeing the organism a certain mobility and the ability to feed, allowing both detritivorous and suspensivorous nutrition. Especially the latter suggests that it was able to reorient itself with respect to the direction of the current ensuring that the flow was directed towards the feeding structures, suggesting the presence of muscles or appendages, not preserved in fossils, but which would not "clash" with the structure bilateral and symmetrical body of the organism. This turns out to be a unique adaptation, not present or in any case not yet found in other organisms belonging to the Ediacara fauna and is, most likely, the oldest example of rheotaxis (the ability of an organism to move against the current). 

 

Darroch Simon AF, Rahman Imran A., Gibson Brandt, Racicot Rachel A. and Laflamme Marc 2017Inference of facultative mobility in the enigmatic Ediacaran organism ParvancorinaBiol. Lett. 132017003320170033 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0033

 

Paterson, J., Gehling, J., Droser, M.  et al.  Rheotaxis in the Ediacaran epibenthic organism  Parvancorina  from South Australia.  Ski Rep  7,  45539 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45539

 

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Parvancorina minchami resin model for museum exhibition

€100.00Price
VAT Included
  • size: 6cm or  15cm 

    paleontological project: Gianpaolo Di Silvestro

    3D Artist: Alessio Schirinzi

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