Ernietta

Ernietta Temporal range: Ediacaran, more than 548 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Petalonamae Phlug, 1970
Class:	Erniettomorpha Phlug, 1972
Family:	Erniettidae Phlug, 1972
Genus:	Ernietta Pflug, 1966
Species:	E. plateauensis
Binomial name
Ernietta plateauensis Pflug, 1966

Ernietta is a bag-shaped erniettomorph genus that lived half-buried in sediment, and probably fed by osmosis. It had chambered walls.

Its fossils has been found in sandstones of the Kanies and Kliphoek Members of the Dabis Formation, Namibia. This deposits have an age more than 548 Myr.

The name has also been misspelled as Ernettia in some papers. A total of 11 genera and 24 species have been described that are considered synonyms of the Ernietta plateauensis:

• Ernietta tschanabis Phlug, 1972

E. aarensis Phlug, 1972

• Erniaster aportus Phlug, 1972

E. patellus Phlug, 1972

• Erniobaris baroides Phlug, 1972

E. epistuta Phlug, 1972

E. gula Phlug, 1972

E. parietalis Phlug, 1972

• Erniobeta forensis Phlug, 1972

E. scapulosa Phlug, 1972

• Erniocarpis sermo Phlug, 1972
• Erntocentris centriformis Phlug, 1972
• Erniodiscus clypeus Phlug, 1972

E. rutilus Phlug, 1972

• Erniofossa prognatha Phlug, 1972
• Erniograndis paraglossa Phlug, 1972

E. sandalix Phlug, 1972

• Ernionorma abyssoides Phlug, 1972

E. clausula Phlug, 1972

E. peltis Phlug, 1972

E. rector Phlug, 1972

E. tribunalis Phlug, 1972

• Erniopelta scruputa Phlug, 1972
• Erniotaxls segmontrix Phlug, 1972

Further reading

• Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth (Princeton Science Library) by Andrew H. Knoll
• Exceptional Fossil Preservation by David J. Bottjer, Walter Etter, James W. Hagadorn, and Carol M. Tang
• The Ecology of the Cambrian Radiation by Andrey Zhuravlev and Robert Riding

See also

• List of Ediacaran genera