Morania

{{Short description|Extinct genus of bacteria}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|513|505|Late early Cambrian - Middle Cambrian}}

| image = Morania fragmenta (fossil bacteria) (Wheeler Formation, Middle Cambrian; Millard County, Utah, USA) 2.jpg

| image_caption = Morania fragmenta fossil from Millard County, Utah

| domain = Bacteria

| phylum = Cyanobacteria

| genus = Morania

}}

Morania is a genus of cyanobacterium preserved as carbonaceous films in the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. it is present throughout the shale; 2580 specimens of Morania are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise 4.90% of the community.{{Cite journal|last1=Caron |first1=Jean-Bernard|last2=Jackson |first2=Donald A.|title=Taphonomy of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale |journal=PALAIOS |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=451–65|date=October 2006|doi=10.2110/palo.2003.P05-070R|jstor=20173022|bibcode=2006Palai..21..451C |s2cid=53646959 }} It is filamentous, forms sheets, and resembles the modern cyanobacterium Nostoc.{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2421265 |author=Carroll Lane Fenton |year=1943 |title=Pre-Cambrian and Early Paleozoic algae |journal=American Midland Naturalist |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=83–111 |jstor=2421265}} It would have had a role in binding the sediment,{{Cite journal| first1 = J. B.| first2 = D. A.| title = Paleoecology of the Greater Phyllopod Bed community, Burgess Shale| last1 = Caron| journal = Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology| volume = 258| issue = 3| pages = 222–256| year = 2008| doi = 10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.05.023| last2 = Jackson| bibcode = 2008PPP...258..222C}} and would have been a food source for such organisms as Odontogriphus and Wiwaxia.