Onega stepanovi Onega stepanovi Onega stepanovi is a fossil organism from Ediacaran deposites of the Arkhangelsk Region, Russia. It was described by Mikhail A. Fedonkin in 1976 The generic name "Onega" comes from the Onega Peninsula of the White Sea, where the first fossils were found. The specific name is given in honour of V. A. Stepanov, discoverer of the first Ediacaran fossil locality in Arkhangelsk Region, on the Letniy Bereg (Summer Coast) of the Onega Peninsula in 1972. The small fossils, which range up to long, have oval outlines and low bodies with an articulated central zone built of isomers encircled
Onega stepanovi by an undivided zone. The surface of the undivided region of "Onega" is covered with small tubercles. "Onega" was originally described by Mikhail Fedonkin as a problematic organism, being grouped together with "Vendia", "Praecambridium" and "Vendomia" as possible stem-group arthropods due to a vague similarity with primitive Cambrian trilobites and arthropods. In 1985 Mikhail Fedonkin erected Phylum Proarticulata, in which he placed: "Onega", "Dickinsonia", "Palaeoplatoda", "Vendia", "Vendomia", "Praecambridium" and "Pseudovendia sp.", although he did not exclude the possibility that "Onega" may still be related to various lower Cambrian arthropods, such as "Skania". Andrey Yu. Ivantsov has proposed that "Onega" be