Rangeomorph

Rangeomorphs are fractal and self-similar in form: they are made of branching sections, and each section repeats the same shape as the whole. The body "frond" is formed of branching "frond" elements, each a few centimetres long. Each of these is formed of many smaller "frondlets." Structurally, these are tubes held up by a semi-rigid organic skeleton. This body plan could have been formed using fairly simple developmental patterns. == Ecology ==

Rangeomorphs dwelt in shallow to abyssal marine environments, were unable to move, and had no apparent reproductive organs. They may have reproduced asexually by dropping fronds. Since many lived below the lowest level of the ocean where sunlight can penetrate, they could not have survived by photosynthesis. There is no evidence of a gut or mouth. One hypothesis is that nutrients from seawater were concentrated in their bodies by osmosis. Among living organisms, only osmotrophic bacteria live in this way, but the fractal branching tube structure of rangeomorphs gave them an unusual amount of surface area for every unit of body volume. This structure may have made it possible for osmotrophic organisms to grow to large sizes. However, other researchers argue this way of life is implausible, and suggest filter feeding or other mechanisms. Most rangeomorphs were attached to the sea floor by a stalk ending in a circular holdfast. Holdfasts were often torn from the frond by wave action or decay before fossilization, and are preserved as separate disc-shaped fossils that were given their own genus names (e.g. Aspidella). Other rangeomorphs (such as the spindle-shaped Fractofusus) lay flat on the sediment surface. Fossil assemblages from Newfoundland and the UK reveal that rangeomorphs could live in large groups. At least seven genera are associated with filaments or stolons up to four meters long. These filaments ran across or through the bacterial mats on which Ediacarans lived, connected with the holdfasts (or the center of the body in genera without holdfasts), and at least in some cases, connected individuals together. This evidence suggests rangeomorphs may have fed by absorbing nutrients from the bacterial mats, and might even have been colonial organisms (such as corals are today) rather than groups of unrelated individuals. == Affinity ==

Rangeomorph communities are similar in structure to those of modern, suspension-feeding animals, but it is difficult to relate their morphology to any modern animals. Early researchers thought they were sea pens (Cnidaria), but examination of well-preserved specimens of Charnia reveals that the branching fronds of rangeomorphs were fundamentally different from sea pens in both anatomy and growth pattern, and the modern consensus is that they are unrelated. they probably represent an extinct stem group to either the animals or fungi. The fractal construction could be an adaptation to osmotic feeding that evolved independently in different groups, but most paleontologists now consider it to be a basic body characteristic inherited from a shared ancestor, which would mean the rangeomorphs are a natural taxon of organisms more closely related to each other than to anything else. == References ==