Beothukis

{{Short description|Rare fossil frond-like rangeomorph}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|570|565}} Ediacaran

| image = Pala12206-fig-0002-m_Beothukis.png

| image_caption = B. plumosa fossil

|display_parents = 2

|taxon = Beothukis

|authority = Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009

|type_species = B. mistakensis

|type_species_authority = Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009

|subdivision = * B. mistakensis Brasier and Antcliffe, 2009

• B. plumosa (Laflamme et al., 2012)

| synonyms = * Culmofrons Laflamme et al., 2012

| synonyms_ref = {{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Alexander G. |last2=Matthews |first2=Jack J. |last3=McIlroy |first3=Duncan |title=The Beothukis/Culmofrons problem and its bearing on Ediacaram macrofossil taxonomy: evidence from an exceptional new fossil locality |journal=Palaeontology |date=January 2016 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=45–58 |doi=10.1111/pala.12206}}

}}

Beothukis is a rare fossil frond-like member of the Rangeomorpha, described from the Ediacaran of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland.{{Cite journal | last1 = Brasier | first1 = M. D. | last2 = Antcliffe | first2 = J. B. | doi = 10.1144/0016-76492008-011 | title = Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota: New insights from laser analysis | journal = Journal of the Geological Society | volume = 166 | issue = 2 | pages = 363 | year = 2009 | bibcode = 2009JGSoc.166..363B | s2cid = 128827652 }} It had been identified since 1992,{{Cite journal

| author = Seilacher, A.

| year = 1992

| title = Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution

| journal = Journal of the Geological Society, London

| volume = 149

| issue = 4

| pages = 607–613

| url = http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/149/4/607

| doi = 10.1144/gsjgs.149.4.0607

| bibcode = 1992JGSoc.149..607S

| s2cid = 128681462

| access-date = 2007-06-21

}} referred in papers as a "spatulate frond" or "flat recliner", but not formally described until 2009. The original fossils from which the genus has been described are still in situ, but replicas are preserved at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Claims of a stem have been contentious, and based largely on structures that have subsequently been determined to be erosional scours, and is so considered to be a recliner {{Cite journal | last1 = McIlroy | first1 = D. | last2 = Hawco | first2 = J. | last3 = McKean | first3 = C | last4 = Nicholls | first4 = R | last5 = Pasinneti | first5 = G | last6 = Taylor | first6 = R | title = Palaeobiology of the reclining rangeomorph Beothukis from the Ediacaran Mistaken Point Formation of southeastern Newfoundland | journal = Geological Magazine | volume = ? | issue = ? | pages = 1–15 | year = 2020 | doi = 10.1017/S0016756820000941 }}