Data from: The arrangement of possible muscle fibres in the Ediacaran taxon Haootia quadriformis

Haootia quadriformis from Newfoundland, Canada, is one of the most unusual impressions of a soft-bodied macro-organism yet described from the late Ediacaran Period. Interpreted as a metazoan of cnidarian grade, the body impression of H. quadriformis possesses features interpreted as fibrous structures that represent possible evidence for muscular tissue. Evidence both in support of and against a relationship between H. quadriformis and the Staurozoa, one of the cnidarian groups to which Haootia was compared in Liu et al., is outlined by Miranda et al.. Our intention in our original paper was to illustrate the staurozoan body plan for comparative purposes, rather than suggest homology or direct ancestry. Nevertheless, fresh insights from workers with expertise in the biology of extant cnidarians are welcomed.

产自加拿大纽芬兰的四形哈乌蒂亚（Haootia quadriformis）是埃迪卡拉纪晚期迄今已报道的最奇特的软躯体宏体生物印痕之一。该化石被认为是刺胞动物（cnidarian）级别的后生动物（metazoan），其躯体印痕带有被解读为纤维状结构的特征，这些结构可能是肌肉组织的佐证。米兰达等人（Miranda et al.）梳理了支持与反对四形哈乌蒂亚与十字水母纲（Staurozoa，Liu等人研究中曾将哈乌蒂亚归入的刺胞动物类群之一）存在亲缘关系的相关证据。本原始研究论文的初衷仅为展示十字水母纲的躯体构型以用于对比分析，而非提出二者存在同源性或直接演化关系。尽管如此，我们仍欢迎来自现生刺胞动物生物学领域专家的新见解。