Andiva ivantsovi
Ediacaran
Late Precambrian (Vendian)
Penega Formation
East Angelsk, White Sea, Russia

Huge 106mm animal on 180mm slab.

Ediacaran. Soft-bodied.

Andiva is a genus of rather flattened, soft-bodied, bilaterally-symmetrical animal with a type of thin, flexible yet rigid shield or carapace. Classified in the phylum Proarticulata, it was originally thought to be part of a large Dickinsonia but has since been reinterpreted as a relative of that genus. Andiva is known from this White Sea locality and also from the Ediacara Hills, Australia. It lived at least ten million years before the beginning of the Paleozoic and does not appear to have any Paleozoic descendants.

This is an unusually large example of an animal that seems to have a general size range of about 60-100mm.