Fractofusus misrai is one of many Ediacaran fossils discovered in 1967 by S.B. Misra at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This location later became the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fossil was named after Professor Misra in 2007. It is a frondose rangeomorph, and its body structure shows glide reflection symmetry, a feature common to its group. It is one of two species in the genus Fractofusus, the other being Fractofusus andersoni. These species were documented in Misra's MS Thesis, along with early classifications of the Mistaken Point Fauna.

Discovery

In the summer of 1967, S.B. Misra, an Indian graduate student at Memorial University in Newfoundland from 1966 to 1969, found a collection of imprints from soft-bodied organisms on large rock slabs while mapping the Conception Group of the Avalon Peninsula near Cape Race, at a place called Mistaken Point.

These unusual impressions on argillite (mudstone) included coelenterates and other metazoa from the Ediacarian period, which was 575 to 560 million years ago. These fossils are records of some of the oldest known complex life forms on Earth. Misra created the first detailed geological map of the area, classified the rock layers, and explained how the rocks were deposited over time.

Misra described the fossil collection, including how the fossils were formed, the conditions that caused the organisms to die, and their age, in his Master of Science thesis. He reported the discovery in a 1968 letter to the journal Nature. In 1969, he published a detailed description of the Mistaken Point fossils in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. He grouped the fossils into five categories: spindle-shaped, leaf-shaped, round lobate, dendrite-like, and radiating. Each group was defined by its shape, arrangement, and possible biological connections.

Misra later described the environment where the fossils were found and the life of the animals that lived in the Conception Sea in two papers published in 1971 and 1981. The Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, a 5.7-square-kilometer area of the coast, protects these fossils.

Reproductive strategy

The way Fractofusus was spread out shows it had a good way to reproduce. This probably involved sending out a seed-like part carried by water to a faraway place, and then growing quickly in new areas, likely without needing another organism, similar to how some plants spread using long stems that grow along the ground.