Explore this animal in Size of Extinct Animals ↗
301 / Precambrian
Fractofusus
Fractofusus misrai
Its quilted branches lay flat rather than rising from a stem.
View original image · 1536 × 1024- Time range
- About 565 million years ago
- Final stage
- Late Ediacaran
- Geographic range
- Deep microbial-mat seafloor · Newfoundland, Canada
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Fractofusus?
Fractofusus (Fractofusus misrai) was an extinct organism known from About 565 million years ago, with a range in Deep microbial-mat seafloor · Newfoundland, Canada.
Life and ecology
Fractofusus had no visible mouth, gut or organs of motion and may have absorbed nutrients across its surface.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Fractofusus disappear?
Environmental and ecological turnover at the end of the Ediacaran is the broad setting in which this body plan disappeared; a specific cause is not established.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Fractofusus?
Thousands of ash-buried impressions preserve communities and size classes that may record stolon-like reproduction.
04 / SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Check the source record
Use the scientific name to compare taxonomy, occurrence records and the fossil record. Database coverage and classifications may differ.
05 / REVISION HISTORY
How has this record changed?
- Rewrote an extinction cause that presented environmental or faunal turnover as established; it is now given as context the record does not prove.
- Verified authoritative entity sources and added three responsive reconstruction sizes.
- Initial bilingual species record published.
06 / CORRECTIONS & ADDITIONS