RE: Picture - of the Oldest vertebrate

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> fam jansma
>
> Chris wrote:
>
> > This "NEW" thing looks absolutly identical to the vendian
> Kimberella, from
> > the White Sea region of Russia.
> > Judge for your self:
> http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/kimberella.html
> >
> Agreed, the "new" thing just looks like what could be an infill of the
> Kimberella specimen... So...not oldest vertebrate after all? :)
>
That was Ben Waggonner's assessment on paleonet, and I concur.  Sort of an
oddly-crunched Kimberella.  So, not a chordate (and in fact quite likely a
basal mollusk).

That being said, basal chordates are now very common in the Chenjiang Fm. of
China.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796