Fig. 3 | Details of the distal anatomy of Auroralumina attenboroughii (GSM 106119) and the mode of preservation. a, Left-hand goblet, with dense crown of overlapping tentacles and conspicuous corner sulcus (now a ridge) and band (now a trench) near the aperture rim. The margins of the fossil are well-defined and the tentacle crown texturally and topographically distinct from the smooth periderm. b, Interpretative drawing of region in a. c, Right-hand goblet, principally preserving only one face but with a second partially visible where its edge (and intervening corner sulcus) was twisted into the plane of preservation, towards the right-hand side. d, Interpretative drawing of region in c. Specimen photographed under low-angle light and interpretations based on features revealed by varying the lighting direction. Scale bar in a and c, 5 cm. e,f, Preservation of the goblet and tentacles of A. attenboroughii. e, Apical view of the two goblets showing how their different orientations at the time of burial generated different views of the tetraradial structure in the fossil in lateral aspect. Schematic goblets (labelled 1 and 2) are representative of the two goblets in Auroralumina. The interpretative drawing of Auroralumina is also shown, with goblets labelled 1 and 2 next to a conulariid cnidarian (OUMNH DU17), also inferred to have been tetraradial in life, to illustrate analogous preservation of multiple faces in lateral view. f, Hypothetical arrangement of the tentacles in oral view in vivo and probable arrangement of tentacles in lateral view at time of burial along with proposed preservational pathway of the tentacles. 1: Tentacles, mostly overlapping, buried by sediment. 2: Partial retraction and deflation postmortem. 3: Decay and casting of the resultant space by sediment from below.

Published as part of Dunn, F. S., Kenchington, C. G., Parry, L. A., Clark, J. W., Kendall, R. S. & Wilby, P. R., 2022, A crown-group cnidarian from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest, UK, pp. 1095-1104 in Nature Ecology & Evolution 6 on page 5, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01807-x, http://zenodo.org/record/6908657