Resumen

TURNER, Ashten M.; DELEAN, Steven  y  GARCIA BELLIDO, Diego C.. Preliminary revision of the morphology of Phyllozoon hanseni from the Ediacaran of South Australia. Ser. correl. geol. [online]. 2021, vol.37, n.2, pp.1-10. ISSN 1666-9479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5600269.

We have investigated the morphology of Phyllozpon hanseni Jenkins and Gehling, a frond-like fossil organism with glide reflection symmetry from the Ediacaran of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The focus of this study was to measure some basic physical parameters of these fossils to identify some distinguishing trends, to help build a picture of the functional morphology of P. hanseni, and then to reconcile this information in a palaeobiological context. The main findings are that specimen length displayed a non-normal, negatively skewed distribution, and that P hanseni possesses two distinct ends. One dubbed here the ‘spoon’, is rounded in profile, with steep-angled positioning of thicker units and a rosebud-like appearance at the terminus, found to always begin on the left bank of the positive hyporelief. The other end, the ‘knife’, displays instead a gradual decrease in both unit width and length with positioning of units perpendicular to the body axis. The area between these two sections, with sub-parallel edges, is referred to as the ‘trunk’. Specimen length was found to be positively associated with both unit number and specimen width. Additionally, the findings suggest a longitudinally asymmetrical growth pattern of increasing size and number of units, with serial addition of units at the knife terminus. The observed morphology of P hanseni suggests a lifestyle as a benthic, prostrate organism.

Palabras clave : Phyllozoon; Ediacara Biota; Flinders Ranges; Glide Symmetry; Longitudinal Asymmetry.

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