Dickinsonia Costata

## Dickensonia Costata

Dickinsonia Costata. Photographed at the South Australian Museum, South Australia Image: Dr Alex Liu

## Classification

### Relatives

* Dickinsonia Lissa
* Dickinsonia Menneri
* Dickinsonia Rex
* Dickinsonia Tenuis
* Dickinsonia Minima
* Dickinsonia Spriggi
* Dickinsonia Elongata
* Dickinsonia Brachina

## Conservation Status

*Dickinsonia Costata*, the first species in the Dickinsonia Genus to be discovered, and the most recognized. This species was discovered by Reg Sprigg.

In Italian "Costata" means "rib", and being the first discovered of the Dickinsonia Genus, and showing many segments, it makes sense that it would be named that.

## Structure and Growth

Like the rest of the genus, due to being extremely structurally simple, scientists have had a hard time classifying it. But *Dickinsonia Costata*s growth is well understood, by growing segments starting from one end, and moving to the other.

*Broad, flat polychaete worms, growing to large size; with left and right halves of anterior body-segment fused together pre-orally; with intestinal caeca that branch dichotomously around pharynx; pharynx situated at centres of first few segments; segmental furrows depressed dorsally and ventrally; dorsal lamellae rarely fossilized.*
-Sprigg, 1947

*Dickinsonia Costata* is the smallest *Dickinsonia* species, having a low number of segments on the length of it's body, the smallest fossils of the species are 4.15 to 140.55 millimeters long.

## Lifestyle and Origin

### Lifestyle

*Dickinsonia Costata* would crawl on he seafloor, and feed on the bacterial goop by braking it down outside it's body, and absorbing the nutrients through it's body-segments.

### Origin

The true origin of this animal is unknown, but it mostly lived in the Adeliade Superbasin of Australia with a few other *Dickinsonia* species

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 FossilWorks - Classification of the genus Dickinsonia
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Dickinsonia* www.ediacaran.org by Dr. Alex Liu, Dr. Felicity Coutts, and Dr. Frankie Dunn
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 NOVA-*Australia's First Four Billion Years:Awakening*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 *Fossil Jellyfishes from Kansas Pennsylvanian Rocks and Elsewhere* by H. J. Harrington and R. C. Moore
5. ↑ ***PNAS** The advent of animals: The view from the Ediacaran* by Mary L. Droser and James G. Gehling
6. ↑ Paleozoo-*Dickinsonia Costata model from Paleozoo Evolutionary Models*
7. ↑ Word Hippo-What does Costata mean in Italian?
8. ↑ ***Evolution & Development: Volume 17, Issue 6** Ancestral State Reconstruction of Ontogeny Supports a Bilaterian Affinity for Dickinsonia* By David A. Gold, Bruce Runnegar, James G. Gehling, David K. Jacobs
9. ↑ *Highly regulated growth and development of the Ediacara macrofossil Dickinsonia Costata* by Scott D. Evans, Mary L. Droser, and James G. Gehling
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Dickinsonia* www.ediacaran.org by Dr. Alex Liu, Dr. Felicity Coutts, and Dr. Frankie Dunn
11. ↑ *Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals* by Ilya Bobrovskiy, Janet M. Hope, Andrey Ivantsov, Benjamin J. Nettersheim, Christian Hallmann, and Jochen J. Brocks

## Gallery

Dickinsonia Costata**Highly regulated growth and development of the Ediacara macrofossil Dickinsonia costata: Fig 6**Is Dickinsonia our oldest ancestor?Dickinsonia Costata, 555 mya, Wyoming Dinosaur Museum, Thermopolis, Wyoming, USA