カナダ、ニューファンドランド
エディアカラ紀の偽化石 Blackbrookiaを体化石新種 Lydonia jiggamintia として記載
最大40㎝、カンブリア紀の海綿類と類似
これが後生生物ならエディアカラ紀における動物の生存の更なる証拠となり、初期動物の記録の理解やエディアカラ紀の食物連鎖の延長に関する証拠に重要な意味を持つことになる
論文OA palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

we have since been working towards redescribing the newfoundland “Blackbrookia” and consider it to have been a spiky topped sponge-relative and today it has a new name! Lydonia jiggamintia. Lydonia is named for spiky topped punk legend John Lydon [aka Johnny Rotten]. Lydonia sometimes overgrew

In 1992 I visited the type material of #Blackbrookia in @charnwoodforest.bsky.social with my then PhD supervisor Martin Brasier and decided between us it wasn’t a body fossil but a microbial mat. In 2008 Blackbrookia was used to describe pimply structures from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social

The paper just released, “Blackbrookia” is now officially named Lydonia jiggamintia!

palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

So…we now think “Blackbrookia” in Newfoundland is a undescribed form comparable in mode of life to modern encrusting sponges though likely not very closely related.
Seemingly all of the #Ediacaran taxa of Newfoundland have fun little stories to tell if you take the time to get to know them.

we previously considered that it might be a sponge and compared it to the Cambrian #crumillospongia but then found that the mesh like surface was actually the eroded remnant of infilled papillae (tubular spikes) seen in the third image which is a little bit like the sponge polymastia

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.

Lovely day out with Gio & @EdiacaraDani out to the site we call Gio’s Crack looking at Fractofusus and “Blackbrookia” with sponge-like walls with ostia, then on to the Matthews Surface photographing Charnia spp. for Gio’s forthcoming paper with @hg_fitzgerald