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Concept
Charnia
Summary
Charnia is a 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 for 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 and is believed to have fed on nutrients in the water. Despite Charnia fern-like appearance, it is not a photosynthetic plant or alga because the nature of the fossilbeds where specimens have been found implies that it originally lived in deep water, well below the photic zone where photosynthesis can occur.
Several Charnia species were described but only the type species C. masoni is considered valid. Some specimens of C. masoni were described as members of genus Rangea or a separate genus Glaessnerina:
Rangea grandis Glaessner & Wade, 1966 = Glaessnerina grandis
Rangea sibirica Sokolov, 1972 = Glaessnerina sibirica
Two other described Charnia species have been transferred to two separate genera
Charnia wardi Narbonne & Gehling, 2003 transferred to the genus Trepassia Narbonne et al., 2009
Charnia antecedens Laflamme et al., 2007 transferred to the genus Vinlandia Brasier, Antcliffe & Liu, 2012
A number of Ediacaran form taxa are thought to represent Charnia, Charniodiscus and other Petalonamids at varying levels of decay; these include the Ivesheadiomorphs Ivesheadia, Blackbrookia, Pseudovendia, and Shepshedia.
Charnia masoni was first described from the Maplewell Group in Charnwood Forest in England and was subsequently found in Ediacara Hills in Australia, Siberia and the White Sea area in Russia, and Precambrian deposits in Newfoundland, Canada.
It lived about 570-550 million years ago.
Charnia masoni was brought to the attention of scientists by Roger Mason, a schoolboy who later became a professor of metamorphic petrology.
Official source
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