478 / Precambrian
Tawuia
Tawuia dalensis
Sausage-shaped carbon films may be macroalgae or another early eukaryote.
View original image · 1600 × 1067- Time range
- About 1 billion–750 million years ago
- Final stage
- Neoproterozoic
- Geographic range
- Shallow marine sediment · Worldwide
01 / DEFINITION & ECOLOGY
What was Tawuia?
Tawuia (Tawuia dalensis) was an extinct organism known from About 1 billion–750 million years ago, with a range in Shallow marine sediment · Worldwide.
Life and ecology
It may have attached to or lain across shallow microbial mats and photosynthesized.
02 / DISAPPEARANCE
Why did Tawuia disappear?
Neoproterozoic ecosystems later expanded, but a younger record does not by itself show that they replaced this simple form.
03 / EVIDENCE
How do scientists know about Tawuia?
Abundant carbon films have stable outlines but lack decisive cellular detail.
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