Haootia

Haootia preserves repeated aligned impressions in one Ediacaran holotype, but muscle identity, orientation and staurozoan comparison have competing primary interpretations; the specimen does not set a Staurozoa or Cnidaria range.

Haootia is displayed at approximately 560 Ma only as the age estimate for its type material used by competing muscular-cnidarian interpretations; it is not a crown-Staurozoa FAD, direct ancestor or global genus duration.

Haootia quadriformis is retained as an Ediacaran cnidarian candidate because the holotype was described in a muscular-cnidarian framework, while later primary studies dispute the staurozoan comparison and keep its precise placement open.

The Haootia holotype NFM F-994 comes from the Fermeuse Formation on the Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada; this named occurrence does not establish a complete geographic distribution or origin centre.

Haootia is associated with a marine Ediacaran depositional setting and an attached or sessile interpretation, but the holotype preserves no direct diet, behaviour or feeding-guild evidence.

The Haootia holotype preserves a roughly quadrate body impression with repeated aligned internal structures; muscle identity and their orientation remain competing interpretations rather than observed histology.