🪸 Ediacaran biotaEdiacaranWell known
Charnia
Charnia masoni
Its discovery was among the first compelling evidence that complex life existed before the Cambrian.
Image: Smith609 at English Wikipedia · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Charnia masoni
- Period
- Ediacaran
- Lived
- 575–555 Ma (575 million years ago)
- Diet
- Unknown
- Habitat
- Open sea
Description
Charnia had a feathery, leaf-like body attached to the seabed by a stalk. Its repeated side branches resemble a fern frond, but the organism was not a plant and had no hard skeletal parts. It was probably attached in a marine ecosystem without modern predators. How it obtained food and which animal group it belonged to remain uncertain.
Habitat
Deep to moderately deep water, where currents carried food particles.
Fossil sites
Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire
Brand Group
Cultural profile: United Kingdom →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Charnia