Bomakellia

Bomakellia kelleri is a species of poorly understood Ediacaran fossil organism represented by only one specimen discovered in the Ust'-Pinega Formation of the Syuzma River (in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia) from rocks dated 555 million years old.

Bomakellia was originally interpreted as an early arthropod,[1] with a study by B. M. Waggoner concluding that the organism was a primitive anomalocarid and erroneously identifying the ridges of its supposed cephalon as eyes, making Bomakellia the oldest known animal with vision.

[2] However, this hypothesis has not reached acceptance, nor acknowledgement.

[3][4] A closer examination of the specimen has identified a tetraradial symmetry in the body, and a frond-like morphology which closely resembles that of Rangea – the current interpretation of Bomakellia is as a rangeomorph frond, which could possibly mean a close relation to the Chinese Paracharnia.

[5]

An outdated reconstruction of Bomakellia kelleri as a proto-arthropod, based on B. M. Waggoner's interpretation.