Are they fossils of Ediacaran metazoa?
In Ediacaran roots extend deeper in time? Joe Meert described enigmatic fossil impressions that could be interpreted as Ediacaran metazoa (multi-celled animals) from strata some 100 million years older than previously known. Now Chris Nedin, a palaeontologist who has worked with Ediacaran and early Cambrian material, has a comprehensive post on his blog Ediacaran titled “770Ma Ediacara (?) Fossils from Kazakhstan (sadly no)”:
Two questions to be asked then. Are these deposits c. 770 million years old? Are these specimens examples of Ediacaran fossils?
I think the answer to the first question is yes, and the answer to the second question is no. I’ll explain below.
Leave comments here or there; Joe has already commented there.