X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Adolf Seilacher

Charnia

An increasingly popular theory has arisen since the mid-1980s, following the work of Prof Adolf Seilacher who suggested that Charnia belongs to an extinct group of unknown grade that was confined to the Ediacaran Period.

Cloudinid

Adolf Seilacher suggests that they adhered to microbial mats, and that the growth phases represented the organism keeping pace with sedimentation—growing through new material deposited on it that would otherwise bury it.

Paleodictyon

Dolf Seilacher proposed in 1977 that it may be a trap for food, a mechanism for farming, or a foraging path.

Paleodictyon nodosum

Adolf Seilacher who discovered the original fossils of Paleodictyon nodosum hypothesizes that the creature is a worm-like species that burrows into the sediment around hydrothermal vents and deflects water flow through the burrows to catch food or farm its own food.

Swartpuntia

This combination of features suggests close relationships between the Ediacaran biota, and lends credence to their membership of a separate phylum (Seilacher's Vendobionta).