Essexella

Essexella is an extinct genus of cnidarian known from Late Carboniferous fossils; it contains a single species, E. asherae. It is one of the most recurrent organisms in the Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois;[1] in the Essex biota of Mazon Creek, it consists of 42% of all fossil finds.[2] Essexella was originally described as a jellyfish,[3] but was recently redescribed as a sea anemone. The scientists on the "anemone" side of the debate made a book as early as 2017[4], but it was ignored until the same authors made a proper scientific paper in 2023.[5]

Essexella
Temporal range:
E. asherae fossil on display at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Genus: †Essexella

Another alleged jellyfish, Reticulomedusa, is likely Essexella preserved from different angles. Essexella may have produced the common trace fossil Conostichus.[6]

See also

References
  1. Palmer, Douglas; Brasier, Martin; Burnie, David; Cleal, Chris; Crane, Peter; Thomas, Barry A.; Buttler, Caroline; Cope, John C. W.; Owens, Robert M. (2009). "Carboniferous". In Ambrose, Jamie; Gilpin, Daniel; Hirani, Salima; Jackson, Tom; Joyce, Nathan; Maiklem, Lara; Marriott, Emma; Nottage, Claire; van Zyl, Miezan (eds.). Prehistoric Life: the Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth (first American ed.). New York City: DK Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7566-5573-0.
  2. Selden, Paul; Nudds, John (2012). "Mazon Creek". Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems (second ed.). Manson Publishing Ltd. pp. 94–96. ISBN 978-1-84076-623-3.
  3. Foster, Merrill W. (1979-01-01), Nitecki, Matthew H. (ed.), "Soft-Bodied Coelenterates in the Pennsylvanian of Illinois", Mazon Creek Fossils, Academic Press, pp. 191–267, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-519650-5.50016-3, ISBN 978-0-12-519650-5, retrieved 2023-03-10
  4. "Abstract: THE MAZON CREEK CNIDARIAN ESSEXELLA: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN (GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017)". gsa.confex.com. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  5. Plotnick, Roy E.; Young, Graham A.; Hagadorn, James W. (8 March 2023). Korn, Dieter (ed.). "An abundant sea anemone from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstӓtte, USA". Papers in Palaeontology. 9 (2). doi:10.1002/spp2.1479. ISSN 2056-2799. S2CID 257447889.
  6. Plotnick, Roy E.; Young, Graham A.; Hagadorn, James W. (8 March 2023). Korn, Dieter (ed.). "An abundant sea anemone from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstӓtte, USA". Papers in Palaeontology. 9 (2). doi:10.1002/spp2.1479. ISSN 2056-2799. S2CID 257447889.


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