Beothukis

{{Short description|Rare fossil frond-like rangeomorph}} {{Update|date=March 2026|reason=''Culmofrons'' is considered a valid genus again after [https://estudiosgeol.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosgeol/article/view/1010 Taylor et al. (2019)]}} {{Automatic taxobox |fossil_range = Late Ediacaran ~{{Fossil range|570|550.78}}<ref name="McIlroy2026">{{cite journal |last1=McIlroy |first1=D. |last2=Denyszyn |first2=S. |last3=Olschewski |first3=P. |last4=Rosse-Guillevic |first4=S. |last5=Muirhead-Hunt |first5=H. |last6=Pérez-Pinedo |first6=D. |last7=McKean |first7=C. |last8=Pasinetti |first8=G. |last9=Rideout |first9=B. |last10=Steele |first10=M.P. |last11=Menon |first11=L.R. |last12=Neville |first12=J.M. |last13=Chida |first13=N. |last14=Taylor |first14=R.S. |title=Ediacaran endlings from the Avalon Assemblage and the severity of the Kotlin Crisis: First documentation of the Inner Meadow Lagerstätte, Newfoundland, Canada |journal=Geology |date=29 January 2026 |doi=10.1130/G54217.1}}</ref> | image = | image_caption = |display_parents = 2 |taxon = Beothukis |authority = Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009 |type_species = B. mistakensis |type_species_authority = Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009 |subdivision = * ''B. mistakensis'' Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009 * ''B. plumosa'' (Laflamme et al., 2012) | synonyms = * ''Culmofrons'' Laflamme et al., 2012 | synonyms_ref = <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Alexander G. |last2=Matthews |first2=Jack J. |last3=McIlroy |first3=Duncan |title=The Beothukis/Culmofrons problem and its bearing on Ediacaram macrofossil taxonomy: evidence from an exceptional new fossil locality |journal=Palaeontology |date=January 2016 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=45–58 |doi=10.1111/pala.12206|hdl=1983/605900ac-5976-4d0a-a4a7-dfc6aefd1566 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> }}

'''''Beothukis''''' is a rare fossil frond-like member of the Rangeomorpha, described from the Ediacaran of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland.<ref name="brasier2009">{{Cite journal | last1 = Brasier | first1 = M. D. | last2 = Antcliffe | first2 = J. B. | doi = 10.1144/0016-76492008-011 | title = Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota: New insights from laser analysis | journal = Journal of the Geological Society | volume = 166 | issue = 2 | pages = 363 | year = 2009 | bibcode = 2009JGSoc.166..363B | s2cid = 128827652 }}</ref> It had been identified since 1992,<ref>{{Cite journal | author = Seilacher, A. | year = 1992 | title = Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution | journal = Journal of the Geological Society, London | volume = 149 | issue = 4 | pages = 607–613 | url = http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/149/4/607 | doi = 10.1144/gsjgs.149.4.0607 | bibcode = 1992JGSoc.149..607S | s2cid = 128681462 | access-date = 2007-06-21 | url-access = subscription }}</ref> referred in papers as a "spatulate frond" or "flat recliner", but not formally described until 2009.<ref name="brasier2009" /> The original fossils from which the genus has been described are still ''in situ'', but replicas are preserved at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Claims of a stem have been contentious, and based largely on structures that have subsequently been determined to be erosional scours, and is so considered to be a recliner <ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = McIlroy | first1 = D. | last2 = Hawco | first2 = J. | last3 = McKean | first3 = C | last4 = Nicholls | first4 = R | last5 = Pasinneti | first5 = G | last6 = Taylor | first6 = R | title = Palaeobiology of the reclining rangeomorph Beothukis from the Ediacaran Mistaken Point Formation of southeastern Newfoundland | journal = Geological Magazine | volume = ? | issue = ? | pages = 1–15 | year = 2020 | doi = 10.1017/S0016756820000941 }}</ref>

==Morphology== ''Beothukis'' appears as a frond composed of two asymmetrical rows of branches that depart from a central growth axis, 12.5–15.5 cm long and 4.5–6 cm wide. Secondary growth is present around the tip. Secondary order units cross the primary order axes as is common in the Charnida <ref name="brasier2009"/> The alternations are irregularly spaced.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Brasier | first1 = M. D. | last2 = Antcliffe | first2 = J. B. | last3 = Liu | first3 = A. G. | doi = 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2012.01164.x | title = The architecture of Ediacaran Fronds | journal = Palaeontology | volume = 55 | issue = 5 | pages = 1105 | year = 2012 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

''Beothukis'' is considered morphologically intermediate between ''Trepassia'' (previously known as ''Charnia wardi'') and ''Bradgatia''.<ref name="brasier2009"/>

==See also== * List of Ediacaran genera

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Charniidae Category:Ediacaran life Category:Ediacaran Canada