[1][2][3] Scott D. Evans, Ian V. Hughes, James G. Gehling, and Mary L. Droser published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on 23 March 2020, describing the finding and identification of I.

[4] Brazilian trace fossils associated with later bilaterians, found 30-40m above a bed radiometrically dated to 555 Ma, are thought to be younger than Ikaria.

[1] The generic name is taken from the Adnyamathanha word for "meeting place" (Ikara, also the name for nearby Wilpena Pound) in recognition of the local indigenous people who originally lived in the region where the fossils were collected.

[2] These are simple imprints resembling a small grain of rice (from 1.9 to 6.7 mm in length), slightly thickening to one end.

It is thought to have moved by peristalsis, constricting muscles against the animal's hydrostatic skeleton, and may have possessed a coelom, mouth, anus, and through-gut, in a similar way to a worm.