Memorial University paleobiologist Duncan McIlroy and a PhD student in the Faculty of Science recently named another ancient species, new to the scientific world and discovered right here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The fossilized impression of Aninoides is 550 million years old, and dates to the Ediacaran period soon after Earth began to thaw from an extreme global ice age.
From left are lab members and guests Heléna Muirhead-Hunt, Dr. Latha Menon, Ben Rideout and Simon Rosse-Guillevic working on the E. M. Coombs Surface in Conception Bay. (via MUN Gazette)
The fossil was discovered in a private meadow in Upper Island Cove.
McIlroy says melting glaciers released nutrients into the ocean, fueling a biological boom, and the sudden appearance of larger, multi-celled organisms.
He calls Aninoides a “proto animal”- a life form bridging plants and animals.
“We think that Aninoides was a very, very simple animal, probably more simple than anything we have around today” McIlroy told the Tim Powers Show.
“It comes from one of our new fossil sites out in Conception Bay, and it’s about 50 cm long, the biggest one. And it’s made up of a really strange way of building an organism. It’s made up fractally. So, it’s made of branches that are made of branches, it has a huge surface area, but as to what it is, we don’ t really know. It’s probably a proto-animal is probably the closest thing.”
MUN PhD student Simon Rosse-Guillevec (MUN Gazette)
Aninoides lived deep in the ocean and likely fed on passing plankton using feeding cells. At this time, the species’ existence is known only from one site in Conception Bay North.
