#Fractofusus
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combosdoodles.bsky.social
Paleo Sunday: Charnia and Fractofusus
November 2, 2025 at 9:32 PM
egmitchell.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday we have wrapped up a wonderful field season in Newfoundland on #Ediacaran life - here are some tiny #Fractofusus for #FractofususFriday from Mistaken Point
September 26, 2025 at 9:55 AM
callanbentley.bsky.social
Fractofusus (Ediacaran fossils), Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. ⚒️
A gray rock slab covered in branching shapes, pencil for scale.
August 18, 2025 at 6:38 PM
egmitchell.bsky.social
Beautiful day out @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social admiring the tiny Fractofusus on the Johnson surface 😍
September 19, 2025 at 9:09 AM
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
For the last 30 years I’ve been working on the Ediacaran of Avalonia. The last 6 years we have really focussed on morphology and palaeobiology of the #Ediacaran clade #Rangeomorpha. The fundamental tools are careful photography, fieldwork, sculpting, working with palaeoartist Bob Nicholls.
Fractofusus misrai an Ediacaran Rangeomorph fossil from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland reconstruction of Fractofusus misrai in collaboration with Bob Nicholls Detail of the fractal-like branching of Fractofusus misrai sculpted by Bob Nicholls The Fractofusus digital sculptures are integrated into our seafloor reconstructions. Here also with Beothukis mistakensis, one of my favourite fossils
August 15, 2023 at 11:41 PM
cambrojoe.bsky.social
Just back from the GAC-MAC conference in Newfoundland. Had the great privilege of seeing the #fossils of #MistakenPoint up close and personal! Pictured are Fractofusus, Charniodiscus, and Pectinifrons. Truly a special place and significant bucket lister.
#Ediacaran #FossilFriday
May 29, 2026 at 11:14 PM
bobnichollsart.bsky.social
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Zooms with species from my #MistakenPoint #Ediacaran landscape reconstruction, created with @dmcediacaran.bsky.social at Memorial University, #Newfoundland.

#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #Fossils #FossilFriday #Beothukis #Fractofusus #Arborea #Charnia
August 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday offering is a hand painted cast of the Ediacaran fractal-like #Fractofusus misrai from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland for an outreach project i’m doing. This is one of the abundant curvy specimens that Rod Taylor worked on for this cool paper www.researchgate.net/publication/...
hand painted cast of a fractofusus with leaf like fractal branches arranged in 2 rows across a central curved axis
June 27, 2025 at 10:39 AM
bobnichollsart.bsky.social
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

A few more zooms with species from my #MistakenPoint #Ediacaran landscape reconstruction, created with
@dmcediacaran.bsky.social at Memorial University, #Newfoundland.

#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #Fossils #Beothukis #Fractofusus #Arborea #Charnia
August 9, 2025 at 10:21 AM
geologyjohnson.bsky.social
My mystery proterozoic fossil reminds me of fractofusus, but with higher complexity but lower order and organisation.
fossilrod.bsky.social Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · Nov 14
#Fractofusus is the most common organism at many of the #Ediacaran fossil sites in #Newfoundland, and it's also one of the best preserved. Here we can see the complex branching they possessed, preserved in exquisite detail.

#FossilFriday #FractofususFriday
November 15, 2025 at 9:44 AM
fossilrod.bsky.social
#Fractofusus is the most common organism at many of the #Ediacaran fossil sites in #Newfoundland, and it's also one of the best preserved. Here we can see the complex branching they possessed, preserved in exquisite detail.

#FossilFriday #FractofususFriday
November 14, 2025 at 6:27 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, we go back to the #Ediacaran with #Fractofusus. This image shows several specimens of different size, orientation and levels of detail preserved. The darker sections represent the overlying ash bed that preserved these organisms in such exquisite detail. #fractofususfriday
June 12, 2026 at 2:59 PM
egmitchell.bsky.social
Fantastic being back in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social mapping out their wonderful #Ediacaran fossils 👌
Jenny stands on a fossil surface, about to image the surface to make 3d model of the surface. A Fractofusus and Hiemaloria from Discovery Geopark
September 17, 2025 at 1:19 AM
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday i’ve been going back over some taphonomic aspects of the #Ediacaran #Rangeomorpha of #Newfoundland. There are a lot of morphological differences even within species depending on how laterally constrained the branches are. Just compare the #Fractofusus misrai branching herewith!
highly fractal branching in Fractofusus misrai picked out in darker colours. the branching at 3 orders is displayed (biserial) and very widely separated for comparison this fractofusus has the branches very tightly packed together so you don’t see the full splayed out shaped, they are effectively curled in on themselves (furled as Martin Brasier called them
August 28, 2026 at 12:01 PM
bobnichollsart.bsky.social
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

Here's my 2024 #MistakenPoint #Ediacaran landscape reconstruction, created with @dmcediacaran.bsky.social & his team at Memorial University, #Newfoundland.

#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #Fossils #FossilFriday #Beothukis #Fractofusus #Arborea #Charnia
August 8, 2025 at 12:21 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday: myself and a recent student looking at #Fractofusus up close at #MistakenPoint, working out branching details in a particularly well-preserved specimen. Thanks to @dmcediacaran.bsky.social for the photo. :) #FractofususFriday
July 31, 2026 at 12:25 PM
deeptimeecology.bsky.social
Fantastic day #laserScanning the fantastic #Ediacaran fossil Fractofusus on the Johnson Surface @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social 🤩❤️
September 26, 2026 at 11:34 PM
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday from Johnson Discovery Surface in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social, famous for its #Fractofusus andersoni, but which also has large enigmatic forms dubbed #Blackbrookia (now considered a pseudofossil). The JDS material is however covered in pimples or meshes not seen in the type.
large obovate fossils from Discovery geopark covered in mesh like textures or pimples (previously called Blackbrookia and informally “pimply melons”) surrounded by many rounded fractal like Fractofusus andersoni detail of a “blackbrookia” showing the mesh like texture interpreted as the cross section through the base of spike like papillae
September 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday, brought to you this week from the #Ediacaran Johnson Discovery Surface in Discovery UNESCO Global geopark. This lovely #Bradgatia like #Fractofusus shows the wonderful fractal-like branching of the #Rangeomorpha for your enjoyment. @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 11:36 AM
fossilrod.bsky.social
It's #FossilFriday! Here's the #Ediacaran E surface at #MistakenPoint in #Newfoundland, showing two curved #Fractofusus misrai and an #Arborea spinosa. The top right & bottom edges show the overlying ash that buried these animals, preserving them for half a billion years! #FractofususFriday
July 3, 2026 at 1:14 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, let’s also celebrate #FractofususFriday! Here’s a cast of several #Fractofusus specimens growing around (and likely absorbing nutrients from) a large mass of decaying tissue on the #Ediacaran sea floor. From Mistaken Point, #Newfoundland.
March 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
egmitchell.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday we have a fantastic post as part of our 5 year project on Understanding selection in the early animals of the #Ediacaran. This research technician post will process our #Ediacaran laser scan data - DM/email: ek338@cam.ac.uk, deadline 12th April 2026

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
laser scan showing a Fractofusus Laser scanning Johnson surface
March 6, 2026 at 9:11 AM
franzanth.bsky.social
Bonus content for the nerds: The species key
the same scene with species names overlaid on top. 1st quarter: Frond-shaped Bradgatia, Charnia, Primocandelabrum Cone-shaped Thectardis Thing lying on a seafloor Fractofusus 2nd quarter: Frond-shaped Charniodiscus Finger-shaped colony of Funisia Various disc-shaped things on the seafloor Dickinsonia, Yorgia, Kimberella, Parvancorina, Tribrachidium Worm traces Helminthoidichnites and the worms Ikaria Floating blob Attenborites 3rd quarter: Archaeocyathan sponge reef Inferred jelly-shaped floaters Small nematode worms and their wiggle traces Algae Seafloor crawler Halkieria Nondescript priapulid worm emerging from the seafloor 4th quarter: Swimming predators Anomalocaris, Isoxys, Sidneyia Tubes Oesia Small little arthropods Liangshanella Crawling mollusc-like creature Wiwaxia Worm Ottoia emerging from the seafloor
January 22, 2025 at 7:29 PM
phil-donoghue.bsky.social
The last bit of Frankie Dunn's PhD is finally published! @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Morphogenesis of Fractofusus andersoni and the nature of early animal development - Nature Communications
Rangeomorphs are some of the oldest complex macroscopic fossil organisms. Here, the authors describe a population of rangeomorphs with two, spindle-shaped fronds from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, mod...
www.nature.com
April 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, a magnificent specimen of Arborea spinosa (formerly Charniodiscus spinosus) from the 565 million year old #Ediacaran deposits at Mistaken Point, #Newfoundland. And yes, those are Fractofusus misrai specimens around its margins. 😃 #FractofususFriday
May 1, 2026 at 12:35 PM