Description

Solza margarita (Ivantsov, 2004) and Kimberella quadrata

Precambrian Penega Formation

East Angelsk, White Sea, Russia.

7mm Solza and 6mm Kimberella on 65mm slab.  Extremely rare. See: Ivantsov, A.Y.; Malakhovskaya, Y.E.; Serezhnikova, E.A. (2004). “Some Problematic Fossils from the Vendian of the Southeastern White Sea Region” Paleontological Journal. 38 (1): 1–9.

Ediacaran.  Soft-Bodied, Problematica.

Solza is a genus of early animal that hasn’t been assigned to a particular family, order, class, nor phylum.  It’s sort of a lengthwise, half-ovoid shape like a Reese’s peanut butter egg sold before Easter.  It was bilaterally-symmetrical and mobile.  So far, it’s known only from Vendian-age White Sea localities in Russia.

Kimberella is a genus of early, bilaterally-symmetrical animal originally described  from the Ediacara Hills, southern Australia as a jellyfish.  It was later reinterpreted as a box jelly.  Since then, numerous well-preserved specimens from the White Sea, northern Russia have led researchers to conclude that may be more closely-related to molluscs (something like a primitive slug).