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 50 centimetres (20 in) above the holdfast. While the organism superficially resembles the sea pens (cnidaria), it is probably not a crown-group animal.

A picture published with the record for Charniodiscus. What it shows has not been checked.

Daniel Pérez-Pinedo, Christopher McKean, Rod Taylor, Duncan McIlroy · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ArboreomorphaPBDB
Diet
osmotroph, suspension feederPBDB
Life habit
upper-level epifaunalPBDB
Motility
stationary, attachedPBDB
Environment
marinePBDB

Time the record covers

At most 97 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 635 Mya and 538.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Cambrian — about 0 of 59 occurrences637–634 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences634–630 Mya — about 2 occurrences630–627 Mya — about 2 occurrences627–624 Mya — about 2 occurrences624–620 Mya — about 2 occurrences620–617 Mya — about 2 occurrences617–614 Mya — about 2 occurrences614–610 Mya — about 2 occurrences610–607 Mya — about 2 occurrences607–604 Mya — about 2 occurrences604–600 Mya — about 2 occurrences600–597 Mya — about 2 occurrences597–594 Mya — about 2 occurrences594–590 Mya — about 2 occurrences590–587 Mya — about 2 occurrences587–584 Mya — about 2 occurrences584–580 Mya — about 2 occurrences580–577 Mya — about 2 occurrences577–574 Mya — about 2 occurrences574–570 Mya — about 2 occurrences570–567 Mya — about 2 occurrences567–564 Mya — about 2 occurrences564–560 Mya — about 2 occurrences560–557 Mya — about 2 occurrences557–554 Mya — about 2 occurrences554–550 Mya — about 2 occurrences550–547 Mya — about 2 occurrences547–544 Mya — about 2 occurrences544–540 Mya — about 2 occurrences540–537 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences637 Mya537 Mya

59 occurrences of Charniodiscus on record. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

59 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

21 formations

Rawnsley Quartzite — 31.42°S, 138.71°ERawnsley Quartzite — 31.45°S, 138.53°ERawnsley Quartzite — 30.51°S, 138.15°ERawnsley Quartzite — 30.97°S, 138.18°EMistaken Point — 48.53°N, 52.90°WMistaken Point — 46.62°N, 53.17°WMistaken Point — 47.60°N, 53.27°WFermeuse — 48.48°N, 53.10°WFermeuse — 47.65°N, 53.22°WBradgate — 52.67°N, 1.28°WBradgate — 52.73°N, 1.23°WTrepassey — 48.53°N, 52.90°WTrepassey — 46.63°N, 53.12°WTrepassey — 47.63°N, 53.20°WTrepassey — 46.63°N, 53.16°WSiltstone Unit 1 — 65.98°N, 134.20°WGoz Siltstone — 65.98°N, 134.20°WSheepbed — 64.67°N, 132.00°WDengying — 30.81°N, 111.15°EDengying — 30.79°N, 111.05°EBriscal — 46.64°N, 53.22°WVerkhovka — 64.70°N, 39.03°EKauriyala — 29.38°N, 79.43°EUst-Pinega — 65.49°N, 39.89°EZimnie Gory — 65.55°N, 39.77°ENadaleen — 63.39°N, 128.48°WContra Fogo Sandstone — 4.00°S, 40.67°WDrook — 46.78°N, 60.89°WChernyi Kamen — 58.08°N, 58.85°EZimnegory — 65.47°N, 39.75°EYorga — 65.55°N, 39.77°EZigan — 56.60°N, 56.68°E

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The named rock units Charniodiscus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

141 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 58 sites for Charniodiscus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

29 references

Each of the 59 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 17 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Charniodiscus

Credit
Daniel Pérez-Pinedo, Christopher McKean, Rod Taylor, Duncan McIlroy
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itArboreomorpha through time

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ford 1958