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Clemente Biota

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Deep Time Analysis

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Abstract

A diverse fauna of Ediacarans from the Clemente Formation of northwestern Sonora, México, includes Pteridinium cf. P. simplex, a recumbent sand frond Beothukis cf. B. mistakensis, the kimberellomorph Kimberella cf. K. quadrata, the solzid kimberellomorph Zirabagtaria ovata n. gen. n. sp., the praecambridiid Palankiras palmeri n. gen. n. sp., Vendamonia truncata n. gen. n. sp., and the aculiferans Clementechiton sonorensis McMenamin and Fleury, 2016 and Korifogrammia clementensis n. gen. n. sp. The Clemente biota provides new data regarding the Ediacaran Cuticle Paradox, which holds that in spite of their apparent simplicity, the Ediacaran cuticle in fact hosted a highly complex morphogenetic field. In a corollary of Williston’s Law, this cuticle underwent successive simplification at the end of the Proterozoic.

One of my correspondents expressed concern that I was perpetuating a dubious interpretation of Kimberella as a mollusk; for another, Kimberella-as-mollusk is crucial to the interpretation of early bilaterian evolution…Perhaps by the time you read this, things will be clearer.

Peter Godfrey-Smith Other Minds (2016)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geography, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, USA

    Mark A. S. McMenamin

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McMenamin, M.A.S. (2018). Clemente Biota. In: Deep Time Analysis. Springer Geology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74256-4_3

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