Fossils of Eldonia berbera, from the Late Ordovician of Morocco
Eldoniids or eldonioids are an extinct clade of enigmatic disc-shaped animals which lived in the early to middle Paleozoic (Cambrian to Devonian). They are characterized by their "medusoid" (jellyfish-shaped) bodies, with the form of a shallow dome opening below to an offset mouth supplemented by filamentous tentacles.[1] Internally, they have a distinctive C-shaped cavity encompassing the gut, as well as hollow radial (radiating) structures arranged around a central ring canal. Most eldoniids are soft-bodied and can only be preserved in lagerstätten, but a few species may have hosted mineralized deposits.[2][3] Historically, the affinities of eldoniids was enigmatic; recently, they been assessed as cambroernid deuterostomes.[4][5] Their lifestyle is still an unresolved question; some authors reconstruct eldoniids as free-floating planktonic predators similar to jellyfish,[1] while others argue that they were passive detritivores, embedded within the seabed for much of their life.[3]
^ abCite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Chen, Jun-yuan; Zhu, Mao-yan; Zhou, Gui-qing (1995). "The Early Cambrian medusiform metazoan Eldonia from the Chenjiang Lagerstätte" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 40 (3): 213–244.
^ abCite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Caron2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference li2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Eldoniids or eldonioids are an extinct clade of enigmatic disc-shaped animals which lived in the early to middle Paleozoic (Cambrian to Devonian). They...
appearing in the Cambrian: Herpetogaster (the type genus), Phlogites, and the eldoniids. They are united by a set of common features including at least one pair...
from the Cambrian Chengjiang biota and classified with the eldoniids. As with other eldoniids, it was originally thought to have been pelagic, but is now...
animal known from the Cambrian Chengjiang biota and classified with the eldoniids. Zhu, M.; Zhao, Yuan-Long; Chen, Jun-Yuan (2002). "Révision des animaux...
test of time, included the siphonophores and a coelenterate medusa. The eldoniids form a clade that also includes Paropsonema, Rotadiscus, and Stellostomites...
animal known from the Cambrian Chengjiang biota and classified with the eldoniids. Zhu, M.; Zhao, Yuan-Long; Chen, Jun-Yuan (2002). "Révision des animaux...
animal of uncertain phylogenetic placement, might be a chondrophore or an eldoniid) is published by Lieberman et al. (2017). Specimens of Cloudina associated...
animals to evolve on Earth could have been fossilized in a way similar to eldoniids from the Tafilalt Lagerstätte of Morocco. Exceptionally preserved phosphatized...
Global Information