Charnia

Not to be confused with Charonia or Chania.

Charnia
Temporal range: Late Ediacaran, 570–550 Ma [1]
A cast of the holotype of Charnia masoni. Metric scale.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: †Petalonamae
Family: †Charniidae
Genus: †Charnia
Ford, 1958
Species:
†C. masoni
Binomial name
†Charnia masoni
Ford, 1958
Synonyms
  • Glassnerina Germs, 1973
  • Rangea grandis Glaessner & Wade, 1966 = Glaessnerina grandis
  • Rangea sibirica Sokolov, 1972 = Glaessnerina sibirica

Charnia is an extinct genus of frond-like lifeforms belonging to the Ediacaran biota with segmented, leaf-like ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture (thus exhibiting glide reflection, or opposite isometry). The genus Charnia was named after Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England, where the first fossilised specimen was found. Charnia is significant because it was the first Precambrian fossil to be recognized as such.

The living organism grew on the sea floor, 570 to 550 million years ago, and is believed to have fed on nutrients in the water. Despite Charnia's fern-like appearance, it is not a photosynthetic plant or alga because the nature of the fossil beds where specimens have been found implies that it originally lived in deep water, well below the photic zone where photosynthesis can occur.[2]

  1. ^ "Leicester's fossil celebrity: Charnia and the evolution of early life" (PDF). University of Leicester. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  2. ^ Hoyal Cuthill, Jennifer F.; Han, Jian (2018). Álvaro, Javier (ed.). "Cambrian petalonamid Stromatoveris phylogenetically links Ediacaran biota to later animals". Palaeontology. 61 (6): 813–823. doi:10.1111/pala.12393. ISSN 0031-0239.