Description

Archaeaspinus sp. Ivantsov A.Yu. 2001

Precambrian

Penega Formation

East Angelsk, White Sea Russia
29mm (1.14 inch) x 25mm (1 inch). Very large for this genus.

Ediacaran.  Problematica.

Archaeaspinus is one of the lesser-known genera of early animals known from the Vendian Period.  It has been classified within the phylum, Proarticulata, a group which shows the beginnings of bilateral symmetry seen in Paleozoic groups.

The Vendian Period spans about the last 110 million years of the Proterozoic Eon from about 540 to 650 million years ago.  It is during this time that soft-bodied, macroscopic life appeared.  By the end of the Vendian the supercontinent, Rodinia, which formed from the collisions of the major land masses approximately 1.2 billion years ago, had started to fragment into continents that would reconnect at the end of the Paleozoic Era over 300 million years later.