IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v388y1997i6645d10.1038_42242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Late Precambrian fossil Kimberella is a mollusc-like bilaterian organism

Author

Listed:
  • Mikhail A. Fedonkin

    (Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Benjamin M. Waggoner

    (University of California)

Abstract

The fossil Kimberella quadrata was originally described from late Precambrian rocks of southern Australia1. Reconstructed as a jellyfish2, it was later assigned to the cubozoans (‘box jellies’), and has been cited as a clear instance of an extant animal lineage present before the Cambrian3,4,5,6,7. Until recently, Kimberella was known only from Australia, with the exception of some questionable north Indian specimens8. We now have over thirty-five specimens of this fossil from the Winter Coast of the White Sea in northern Russia. Our study of the new material does not support a cnidarian affinity. We reconstruct Kimberella as a bilaterally symmetrical, benthic animal with a non-mineralized, univalved shell, resembling a mollusc in many respects. This is important evidence for the existence of large triploblastic metazoans in the Precambrian and indicates that the origin of the higher groups of protostomes lies well back in the Precambrian.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikhail A. Fedonkin & Benjamin M. Waggoner, 1997. "The Late Precambrian fossil Kimberella is a mollusc-like bilaterian organism," Nature, Nature, vol. 388(6645), pages 868-871, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:388:y:1997:i:6645:d:10.1038_42242
    DOI: 10.1038/42242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/42242
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/42242?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:388:y:1997:i:6645:d:10.1038_42242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.