Brown museum cast of a Spriggina fossil, its elongated divided body visible beside a central crack, mounted against a black background.
Royal Tyrrell Museum cast TMP 1993.140.0010 of a Rawnsley Quartzite Ediacaran fossil; photographed 13 July 2025. Explicitly a cast, rather than an original fossil slab.
Overview
Spriggina has an elongated outline, an undivided wider end and repeated units along a midline. The 2026 study measured 16 museum and 60 Nilpena specimens, including holotype SAMA P12771; analyses used varying subsets.
About 70% were bent. Bending, missing margins and body orientations did not consistently follow currents, supporting active movement. Left-bent fossils predominated approximately twofold, interpreted as rightward preference in life; a burial response remains possible.
Muscles, nervous coordination and segmentation are inferred, not preserved tissues. No attached feeding trail establishes diet; movement similarity does not establish flatworm ancestry. Dating relies on correlation, not direct radiometric measurements.
Origins & earliest records
Glaessner named the species in 1958.
Evidence & interpretation
Museum fossils, mapped bedding surfaces and morphometric comparisons.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Earliest evidence of behavioural handedness in the Ediacaran motile bilaterian Spriggina floundersi
Scientific Reports 16, 19924. Complete main text and Methods read; supplementary data not reanalysed.
Family, evolution & connections
Taxonomic classification
A hierarchy of classified groups, not a chain of direct ancestors.
- GenusSpriggina
- SpeciesSpriggina floundersi
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- ResearchEvans et al. 2026 primary morphological studyResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Museum fossil-cast photographBrown museum cast of a Spriggina fossil, its elongated divided body visible beside a central crack, mounted against a black background.
Royal Tyrrell Museum cast TMP 1993.140.0010 of a Rawnsley Quartzite Ediacaran fossil; photographed 13 July 2025. Explicitly a cast, rather than an original fossil slab.
