Aug 11, 2025
Tulaneia amabilia was an enigmatic Ediacaran animal that lived in what is now Nevada, USA just before the start of the Cambrian Period, about 540 million years ago.
Up to around 10cm across (~4"), its body was made up of a fan-shaped frill of airbed-like tubes, with tips that separated from each other and tapered to blunt points. Much like its close relative Ernietta it would have lived with its base buried in the seafloor sediment, and it was probably a suspension feeder catching organic particles in water currents.
One Tulaneia fossil specimen shows birfurcating tips, but it's unclear whether this was a common feature of this species or a developmental anomaly in this particular individual.
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