Burykhia
Sign in to saveBurykhia hunti is an Ediacaran fossil from the White Sea region of Russia dating to . It is considered of possibly ascidian affinity, due to the sac-like morphology and a series of distinctly perforated bands reminiscent of a tunicate pharynx. If B. hunti is a tunicate, it could be the oldest ascidian fossil known as of its publication in 2012. It is also possibly related to the slightly younger Ausia, another putative ascidian from the Vendian biota in Namibia.
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Discovery and Naming
- Description
- Affinities
- See also
- References
Burykhia hunti is an Ediacaran fossil from the White Sea region of Russia dating to . It is considered of possibly ascidian affinity, due to the sac-like morphology and a series of distinctly perforated bands reminiscent of a tunicate pharynx. If B. hunti is a tunicate, it could be the oldest ascidian fossil known as of its publication in 2012. It is also possibly related to the slightly younger Ausia, another putative ascidian from the Vendian biota in Namibia.
== Discovery and Naming == The fossil material of Burkyhia was found in the Syuz'ma River, in the middle part of the Verkhovka Formation (the Ust' Pinega Formation according to A.F. Stankovskiy's stratigraphic scheme) in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Northwestern Russia, during 1995 and 2003 field seasons; the formation's age is constrained by two volcanic ash dates of 557.28 ± 0.6 and 552.96 ± 0.7 million years.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Burykhia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.