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'''Charnia''' is the genus name given to a frond-like Precambrian lifeform with segmented ridges branching alternately to the right and left from a zig-zag medial suture. There are two species, ''Charnia masoni'', discovered by Roger Mason, a schoolboy who would later become a professor, in 1957 in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, and ''Charnia wardi'', discovered in 1978 in southeast Newfoundland. The genus was named after Charnwood Forest, where the first specimen was found. It was originally interpreted as an alga (Ford) and a sea pen (Glaessner). One modern interpretation favoured by Seilacher and McMenamin is that ''Charnia'' is a Vendazoan built with unipolar iterations of one cell family.
''Charnia'' is one of the most widespread Ediacaran fossils. It has been reported from a number of localities worldwide including England's Charnwood Forest, Iran, Olenek, South Australia, and the White Sea Coast of Russia. However, the greatest abundance of specimens and oldest reliably dated Ediacaran fossils known anywhere are found along the southeast coast of Newfoundland. Life after snowball: The oldest complex Ediacaran fossils, Guy M. Narbonne and James G. Gehling, , , Geology, 2003
''Charnia'' is the oldest complex fossil found anywhere in the world. ''Charnia wardi'' has been found in the Drook formation in Newfoundland at 575 mya. ''C. masoni'' followed soon afterwards. The only complex fossil found in earlier rocks is Nimbia. This suggests that ''Charnia'' could be an ancestor to the Eumetazoa.
As of 2003, ''Charnia wardi'' is also the longest Ediacaran fossil yet discovered, measuring up to 2 metres long. It was anchored to the sediment in the sea bed in deep water where it would not be disturbed by waves.

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External links

Reference

External links

For pictures of ''Charnia'', see:

★ http://geol.queensu.ca/museum/exhibits/ediac/drook/carolyn.html - ''Charnia masoni''

★ http://geol.queensu.ca/museum/exhibits/ediac/drook/calvert.html - ''Charnia wardi''

★ http://www.toyen.uio.no/palmus/galleri/montre/english/x494.htm
An article on the discovery of ''Charnia masoni'':

★ http://www.charnia.org.uk/newsletter/brit_assoc_2002.htm