Cloudina fossil map
Where fossils of Cloudina have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 555 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 555 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Ediacaran & Cambrian life |
|---|---|
| Lived | 635–525.5 million years ago (Ediacaran to Stage 2) |
| Periods | Ediacaran, Cambrian |
| Family | Cloudinidae |
| Named by | Germs 1972 |
| Fossil records | 69 occurrences at 44 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Brazil, China, United States, Namibia, Spain, Paraguay, South Africa, Iran, Oman, Russian Federation … |
| Rock formations | Tamengo, Dengying, Urusis, Deep Spring, Zaris, Villarta |
About Cloudina
The cloudinids, an early metazoan family containing the genera Acuticocloudina, Cloudina and Conotubus, lived in the late Ediacaran period about 550 million years ago and became extinct at the base of the Cambrian. They formed millimetre-scale conical fossils consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another; the appearance of the organism itself remains unknown. The name Cloudina honors the 20th-century geologist and paleontologist Preston Cloud.
Cloudinids comprise two genera: Cloudina itself is mineralized, whereas Conotubus is at best weakly mineralized, whilst sharing the same "funnel-in-funnel" construction.
Cloudinids had a wide geographic range, reflected in the present distribution of localities in which their fossils are found, and are an abundant component of some deposits. They never appear in the same layers as soft-bodied Ediacaran biota, but the fact that some sequences contain cloudinids and Ediacaran biota in alternating layers suggests that these groups had different environmental preferences. It has been suggested that cloudinids lived embedded in microbial mats, growing new cones to avoid being buried by silt. However no specimens have been found embedded in mats, and their mode of life is still an unresolved question.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Cloudinidae (revision 1378423450), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 22 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q509074.
