Proterozoic Modular Biomineralized Metazoan from the Nama Group, Namibia
- 28 June 2002
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 296 (5577) , 2383-2386
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1071599
Abstract
We describe a Proterozoic, fully biomineralized metazoan from the Omkyk Member (∼549 million years before the present) of the northern Nama Group, Namibia. Namapoikia rietoogensis gen. et sp. nov. is up to 1 meter in diameter and bears a complex and robust biomineralized skeleton; it probably represents a cnidarian or poriferan. Namapoikia encrusts perpendicular to the walls of vertical synsedimentary fissures in microbial reefs. This finding implies that large, modular metazoans with biologically controlled mineralization appeared some 15 million years earlier than previously documented.Keywords
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