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Science 28 June 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5577, pp. 2383 - 2386
DOI: 10.1126/science.1071599
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Reports

Proterozoic Modular Biomineralized Metazoan from the Nama Group, Namibia

Rachel A. Wood,12* John P. Grotzinger,3 J. A. D. Dickson2

We describe a Proterozoic, fully biomineralized metazoan from the Omkyk Member (~549 million years before the present) of the northern Nama Group, Namibia. Namapoikia rietoogensis gen. et sp. nov. is up to 1 meter in diameter and bears a complex and robust biomineralized skeleton; it probably represents a cnidarian or poriferan. Namapoikia encrusts perpendicular to the walls of vertical synsedimentary fissures in microbial reefs. This finding implies that large, modular metazoans with biologically controlled mineralization appeared some 15 million years earlier than previously documented.

1 Schlumberger Cambridge Research, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB2 OEL, UK.
2 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK.
3 Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rwood2{at}cambridge.scr.slb.com

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)