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Charnia
''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 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 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. Diversity Several ''Charnia'' species were described but only the type species ''C. masoni'' is considered valid. Some specimens of ''C. masoni'' were described as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charnia Masoni Fossil, New Walk Museum
''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 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 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. Diversity Several ''Charnia'' species were described but only the type species ''C. masoni'' is considered valid. Some specimens of ''C. masoni'' were described ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran Biota
The Ediacaran (; formerly Vendian) biota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (). These were composed of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms. Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The Ediacaran biota may have undergone evolutionary radiation in a proposed event called the Avalon explosion, . This was after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation. This biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota appears to have almost completely replaced the organisms that dominated the Ediacaran fossil record, although relationships ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Mason (geologist)
Roger Mason (born 4 May 1941) is an English geologist. He is known as the discoverer of Ediacaran fossils, although it was later found that a then 15-year-old schoolgirl named Tina Negus had discovered the first '' Charnia'' fossil a year before he did. He is now a professor at the China University of Geosciences at Wuhan, China. Charnia discovery Mason grew up in the English Midlands city of Leicester, where he attended Wyggeston Boys’ Grammar School. In April 1957, while rock climbing with friends in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, he spotted what looked like a leaf embedded in the rock. Mason took a rubbing of the rock. He showed the rubbing to his father, the minister of Leicester's Great Meeting Unitarian Chapel, who also taught at the local university and knew Trevor Ford, a geologist there. Mason took Ford to the site; Ford wrote up the discovery in the ''Journal of the Yorkshire Geological Society''. Ford identified it as a Precambrian fossil and named it '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period 635 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Cambrian Period 538.8 Mya. It marks the end of the Proterozoic Eon, and the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon. It is named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia. The Ediacaran Period's status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years. Although the period takes its name from the Ediacara Hills where geologist Reg Sprigg first discovered fossils of the eponymous Ediacaran biota in 1946, the type section is located in the bed of the Enorama Creek within Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, at . The Ediacaran marks the first appearance of widespread multicellular fauna following the end of Snowball Earth glaciation events, the so-called Ediacaran bio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trepassia
''Trepassia'' is a 579 million-year-old fossil of Ediacaran rangeomorph. It was first discovered by Guy M. Narbonne, a professor at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada and colleagues in 2009. Three years later, Martin D. Brasier added additional description to ''Trepassia.'' The generic name is taken from the French word, trépassés, which translates to "those that have departed forever" (or "corpses") and honors the Trepassey community in Newfoundland. It was originally described as '' Charnia wardi''; it was referred under this synonym in a 2016 paper. Morphology ''Trepassia'' is one of the oldest known rangeomorphs and spanned over one meter in length. Longest specimens of ''T. wardae'' reached .M. LAFLAMME, G. M. NARBONNE, C. GREENTREE & M. M. ANDERSON. 2016. Morphology and taphonomy of an Ediacaran frond: Charnia from the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charnwood Forest
Charnwood Forest is a hilly tract in north-western Leicestershire, England, bounded by Leicester, Loughborough and Coalville. The area is undulating, rocky and picturesque, with barren areas. It also has some extensive tracts of woodland; its elevation is generally and upwards, the area exceeding this height being about . The highest point, Bardon Hill, is . On its western flank lies an abandoned coalfield, with Coalville and other former mining villages, now being regenerated and replanted as part of the National Forest. The M1 motorway, between junctions 22 and 23, cuts through Charnwood Forest. The hard stone of Charnwood Forest has been quarried for centuries, and was a source of whetstones and quern-stones. The granite quarries at Bardon Hill, Buddon Hill and Whitwick supply crushed aggregate to a wide area of southern Britain. The forest is an important recreational area with woodland walks, noted for their displays of bluebells in the early spring, rock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rangea
''Rangea'' is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs. ''Rangea'' was the first complex Precambrian macrofossil named and described anywhere in the world. ''Rangea'' was a centimetre- to decimetre-scale frond characterised by a repetitive pattern of self-similar branches and a sessile benthic lifestyle. Fossils are typically preserved as moulds and casts exposing only a leafy petalodium, and the rarity and incompleteness of specimens has made it difficult to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the entire organism.Sharp, Alana C., Alistair R. Evans, Siobhan A. Wilson, and Patricia Vickers-Rich. "First Non-destructive Internal Imaging of Rangea, an Icon of Complex Ediacaran Life." Precambrian Research 299 (2017): 303-08. doi: 10.1016/j.precamres.2017.07.023 Fossilized ''Rangea'' consists of several vanes. Each vane has a foliate shape with a series of recessed furrows that run outwards at varying angles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shepshedia
The "ivesheadiomorphs" are a group of fossilised structures known from Ediacaran localities in England and Newfoundland. They are considered to be taphomorphs, representing the poorly preserved biological remains of various contemporary taxa such as '' Charnia'', '' Charniodiscus'', ''Bradgatia'', '' Primocandelabrum'', ''Pectinifrons'' and others, that were effaced by partial decay by micro-organisms following death on the seafloor before burial by sediment. Ivesheadiomorph structures were previously described as distinct organisms, namely ''Ivesheadia lobata'' ("pizza disk"), ''Blackbrookia oaksi'', ''Shepshedia palmata'' and ''Pseudovendia charnwoodensis''. However, all of these fossils have since been rejected as valid taxa. See also List of Ediacaran genera This is a list of all described Ediacaran genera, including the Ediacaran biota. It contains 227 genera. References {{reflist, 30em * Ediacaran The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudovendia
The "ivesheadiomorphs" are a group of fossilised structures known from Ediacaran localities in England and Newfoundland. They are considered to be taphomorphs, representing the poorly preserved biological remains of various contemporary taxa such as '' Charnia'', '' Charniodiscus'', ''Bradgatia'', '' Primocandelabrum'', ''Pectinifrons'' and others, that were effaced by partial decay by micro-organisms following death on the seafloor before burial by sediment. Ivesheadiomorph structures were previously described as distinct organisms, namely ''Ivesheadia lobata'' ("pizza disk"), ''Blackbrookia oaksi'', ''Shepshedia palmata'' and ''Pseudovendia charnwoodensis''. However, all of these fossils have since been rejected as valid taxa. See also List of Ediacaran genera This is a list of all described Ediacaran genera, including the Ediacaran biota. It contains 227 genera. References {{reflist, 30em * Ediacaran The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackbrookia
The "ivesheadiomorphs" are a group of fossilised structures known from Ediacaran localities in England and Newfoundland. They are considered to be taphomorphs, representing the poorly preserved biological remains of various contemporary taxa such as '' Charnia'', '' Charniodiscus'', ''Bradgatia'', '' Primocandelabrum'', ''Pectinifrons'' and others, that were effaced by partial decay by micro-organisms following death on the seafloor before burial by sediment. Ivesheadiomorph structures were previously described as distinct organisms, namely ''Ivesheadia lobata'' ("pizza disk"), ''Blackbrookia oaksi'', ''Shepshedia palmata'' and ''Pseudovendia charnwoodensis''. However, all of these fossils have since been rejected as valid taxa. See also List of Ediacaran genera This is a list of all described Ediacaran genera, including the Ediacaran biota. It contains 227 genera. References {{reflist, 30em * Ediacaran The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivesheadiomorphs
The "ivesheadiomorphs" are a group of fossilised structures known from Ediacaran localities in England and Newfoundland. They are considered to be taphomorphs, representing the poorly preserved biological remains of various contemporary taxa such as '' Charnia'', '' Charniodiscus'', ''Bradgatia'', '' Primocandelabrum'', ''Pectinifrons'' and others, that were effaced by partial decay by micro-organisms following death on the seafloor before burial by sediment. Ivesheadiomorph structures were previously described as distinct organisms, namely ''Ivesheadia lobata'' ("pizza disk"), ''Blackbrookia oaksi'', ''Shepshedia palmata'' and ''Pseudovendia charnwoodensis''. However, all of these fossils have since been rejected as valid taxa. See also List of Ediacaran genera This is a list of all described Ediacaran genera, including the Ediacaran biota. It contains 227 genera. References {{reflist, 30em * Ediacaran The Ediacaran Period ( ) is a geological period that spans 9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charniodiscus
''Charniodiscus'' is an Ediacaran fossil that in life was probably a stationary filter feeder that lived anchored to a sandy sea bed. The organism had a holdfast, stalk and frond. The holdfast was bulbous shaped, and the stalk was flexible. The frond was segmented and had a pointed tip. There were two growth forms: one with a short stem and a wide frond, and another with a long stalk, elevating a smaller frond about above the holdfast. While the organism superficially resembles the sea pens (cnidaria), it is probably not a crown-group animal. ''Charniodiscus'' was first found in Charnwood Forest in England, and named by Trevor D. Ford in 1958. The name is derived from the fact that Ford described a holdfast consisting only of a double concentric circle, his species being named ''Charniodiscus concentricus''. Later it was discovered that a frond (''Charnia masoni'') was part of a closely related organism. '' Charnia'' differs in the branching structure in the frond. ''Charni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
