Kingdom Animalia Species M. ovata Rank Genus | Phylum ?Arthropoda Scientific name Marywadea ovata | |
Family Sprigginidae Glaessner, 1958 Similar Onega stepanovi, Windermeria, Praecambridium, Lossinia, Vendia | ||
Marywadea is a genus of Ediacaran biota shaped like an oval with a central ridge. It is a bilaterian organism as evidenced by its symmetry. The fossil has an asymmetrical first chamber of the quilt. It has transverse ridges away from the central axis that may be gonads. The head is shaped as a semicircle and is the same width as the rest of the body. The ridges number about 50. There are two oval shapes below the head.
Marywadea ovata is the only species known. Originally M. ovata was grouped under the genus Spriggina, but recent research has moved the species into its own genus. It is most often interpreted as an ancestral arthropod, annelid and Proarticulata, but as with all Ediacarian fauna this is not necessarily correct. Initially, it was described as the second species of Spriggina. The genus was established by Martin Glaessner in 1976, who named it after fellow paleontologist Mary Wade, with whom he had described the species ten years earlier.