Happy #FossilFriday brought to you this week by #Haootia and #Mamsetia, staurozoan #Cnidaria from the c.565Ma #Ediacaran rocks of Newfoundland, Canada.

doi.org/10.3390/life...

This #FossilFriday: the world's oldest known muscular organism, Mamsetia manunis, coloured to show the different muscle bands. This #Ediacaran (c. 565 MYA) aged animal, described by our research group in 2024, was found near Port Union in #Newfoundland.

The adjacent Arborea is a Friday freebie. :)

Say hello to the oldest animals in the fossil record (my painting of Haootia).

Read all about Haootia and the newly described Mamsetia, here: gazette.mun.ca/research/ear...

It is time to stop reconstructing these animals standing on discs!

#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #Haootia #FossilFriday

A closer look at Haootia quadriformis and Mamsetia manunis.
Read the paper here: www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14...
#SciArt #SciComm #PaleoArt #Haootia #FossilFriday

Best day in the field ever? Quite possibly. It’s not every day you find the oldest known muscular animal in the world. Mamsetia manunis - an #Ediacaran fossil at @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social - before and after cleaning on the day it was discovered. #FossilFriday

This #FossilFriday i wanted to share this tiny #Staurozoan fossil from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland. It was the paratype of #Haootia but now belongs to #Mamsetia . We consider that it might be the #Stauropolyp. See the coronal muscle of the calyx & 1 arm. compare the arm of a modern #Lucernaria

This is really cool. Some unexpected things showing up. There is an interesting #Mamsetia like thing which to my eye might be a stauropolyp like the former paratype of #Haootia (now in Mamsetia).

Happy #FossilFriday! The Ediacaran of #Newfoundland is famous for its animal fossils. The most iconic are the muscular #Staurozoa #Haootia and #Mamsetia and I think our new 551Ma #Edrathina is probably comparably important , being the oldest relative of comb-jellies, another early animal group.

This #fossilfriday is brought to you by the holotype of the oldest fossil cnidarian Mamsetia manunis from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social . This summer we have worked with Champney’s West Mini aquarium on a new Geosite which includes a cast of this specimen. It was torn prior to fossilization

I believe this specimen was first found by @jackjamesmatthews.bsky.social and features in our recent work on Haootia and Mamsetia showing that they were crown group Staurozoa www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14...

there were cnidarians around (jellyfish and relatives) so definitely some predation happening doi.org/10.3390/life...

Neat video of some *extant* Stauromedusae (upside-down jellyfish). Near-identical fossil examples (Haootia, Mamsetia) go all the way back to the dawn of animal life in the Ediacaran.