All of the fossils are oval in outline. Elongated specimens illustrate that the organism was capable of stretching in an anterior-posterior direction, perhaps by as much as a factor of two. The only type of symmetry visible in the White Sea specimens is bilateral; there is no sign of any of the kinds of radial symmetry that are normal in the Cnidaria, the group that includes jellyfish, sea anemones and hydras. The Australian fossils were originally described as a type of jellyfish, but this is inconsistent with the bilateral symmetry in the fossils. The White Sea fossils and the surrounding sediments also show that "Kimberella" lived on the surface of the sea-floor.