Article
Article
Tommotian fauna
Article By:
Bengtson, Stefan Invertebrate Fossils, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleozoology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.699850
The first diverse assemblages of unquestionable animal fossils at the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition, which marks the change from a predominantly microbial biosphere to a modern type of biosphere abundant with multicellular life. The name derives from the Early Cambrian Tommotian Stage in Siberia, where the significance of this fauna of early skeletal fossils (often referred to as “small shelly fossils”) was first realized. However, the concept goes beyond the geographical and temporal boundaries of the Tommotian Stage. It can be traced back to the low-diversity assemblages of skeletal animal fossils appearing near the end of the Neoproterozoic, continuing into the Cambrian, in Siberia first in moderate diversity in the Manykaian (Nemakit-Daldynian) Stage, then burgeoning in the Tommotian Stage itself. See also: Cambrian; Fossil
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