Erniettomorpha

Erniettomorpha is an extinct class, which is commonly considered a part of the phylum Petalonamae, and were around in the late Ediacaran period from 567.3 – 538.8 Ma, with potential records in the lowermost Cambrian of the United States at 518 Ma. They are commonly infaunal in nature, living partially buried within the substrate, and can also be found across the world, excluding the Polar regions and South America. The type genus of the class is Ernietta.

Erniettomorpha

Uncredited · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
AnimaliaPBDB
Diet
suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationaryPBDB
Vision
blindPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 17 million years on record.

The record covers at least 538.8 Mya to 521 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 635 Mya to 506.5 Mya.

Cambrian — about 5 of 97 occurrencesCambrian638–633 Mya — about 2 occurrences633–629 Mya — about 4 occurrences629–624 Mya — about 4 occurrences624–620 Mya — about 4 occurrences620–615 Mya — about 4 occurrences615–611 Mya — about 4 occurrences611–606 Mya — about 4 occurrences606–602 Mya — about 4 occurrences602–597 Mya — about 4 occurrences597–593 Mya — about 4 occurrences593–589 Mya — about 4 occurrences589–584 Mya — about 4 occurrences584–580 Mya — about 4 occurrences580–575 Mya — about 4 occurrences575–571 Mya — about 4 occurrences571–566 Mya — about 4 occurrences566–562 Mya — about 4 occurrences562–557 Mya — about 4 occurrences557–553 Mya — about 4 occurrences553–548 Mya — about 4 occurrences548–544 Mya — about 4 occurrences544–540 Mya — about 4 occurrences540–535 Mya — about 2 occurrences535–531 Mya — about 1 occurrence531–526 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences526–522 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences522–517 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences517–513 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences513–508 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences508–504 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences538.8 Mya521 Mya638 Mya504 Mya

97 occurrences of Erniettomorpha on record, most of them in the Cambrian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

97 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

21 formations

Rawnsley Quartzite — 31.42°S, 138.71°ERawnsley Quartzite — 31.23°S, 138.53°ERawnsley Quartzite — 30.97°S, 138.18°ERawnsley Quartzite — 30.85°S, 138.13°ERawnsley Quartzite — 31.32°S, 138.50°EDabis — 22.00°S, 17.00°EDabis — 22.58°S, 17.08°EDabis — 26.65°S, 16.27°EDabis — 26.30°S, 17.03°EDabis — 26.70°S, 17.12°EDabis — 26.48°S, 16.71°EUrusis — 22.00°S, 17.00°EUrusis — 27.48°S, 16.70°EUrusis — 27.45°S, 16.56°EUrusis — 27.63°S, 16.86°EUrusis — 27.70°S, 17.02°EVerkhovka — 63.92°N, 38.08°EVerkhovka — 64.70°N, 39.03°EVerkhovka — 64.38°N, 40.65°EVerkhovka — 64.72°N, 38.92°EWood Canyon — 36.40°N, 116.10°WWood Canyon — 35.04°N, 115.68°WNudaus — 22.58°S, 17.08°ENudaus — 24.36°S, 16.49°ENudaus — 24.49°S, 16.36°EMillingport — 35.36°N, 80.35°WMillingport — 35.17°N, 80.40°WDengying — 30.81°N, 111.15°EDengying — 30.79°N, 111.05°EUrusis — 28.74°S, 17.55°EKuibis Quartzite — 26.65°S, 15.13°ENomtsas — 27.42°S, 16.43°EEast Twin — 53.08°N, 118.65°WEast Twin — 53.03°N, 118.73°WWilpena — 33.78°S, 138.23°EPoleta — 37.30°N, 118.15°WBlueflower — 64.67°N, 132.00°WUratanna — 30.45°S, 138.50°ENadaleen — 63.39°N, 128.48°WCid — 35.25°N, 80.25°WFloyd Church — 35.42°N, 80.33°WClemente — 30.40°N, 111.95°WFermeuse — 47.65°N, 53.22°W

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The named rock units Erniettomorpha has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Erniettomorpha and its relatives

Cambrian

Where Erniettomorpha and its relatives were recorded in the Cambrian.

Found in the same rock

189 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 69 sites for Erniettomorpha, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

34 references

Each of the 97 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 22 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Erniettomorpha

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

No 3D scan of Erniettomorpha was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Pflug 1972)