Cloudina: first animal with a mineralised skeleton
Cloudina: primer animal con esqueleto mineralizado
- Date
- c. 550 Ma · confidence medium
- Place
- Nama Group, Karas, Namibia
- Credited to
- Gerard Germs (description, 1972)
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Stacked conical calcium-carbonate tubes made by animals of the latest Ediacaran. They are the oldest known mineralised external skeletons and bear borings that suggest predation.
Germs described it in 1972 from Namibia's Nama Group. Cloudina is also found in China, Spain, Oman and Brazil; Namibia is the type locality. Approximate coordinates for the Nama region.
What it led to
- origin of the animal skeleton and the predator-prey arms race before the Cambrian
- biostratigraphy of the end of the Ediacaran
- debate on the Cambrian explosion