''Cheungkongella ancestralis'' is a

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

-like organism from the

Lower Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago ...

Haikou Haikou (; ), also spelled as Hoikow is the capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. The northern part of the city is on the ...

Chengjiang Chengjiang (; earlier Tchinkiang) is a city located in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, China, just north of Fuxian Lake. Administrative divisions Chengjiang City has 2 subdistricts and 4 townships. ;2 subdistricts * Fenglu () * Longjie () ;4 towns ...

deposits of China. It was originally described as a tunicate, though, this identification has been questioned, especially with the discovery of another Chengjiang tunicate, ''

Shankouclava ''Shankouclava'' is an extinct genus of tunicate. It represents the oldest, unequivocal genus of tunicates, from 520 million years ago. It has been found in the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shale at Shankou village, Anning, near Kunming ( South C ...

''. This challenge to ''Cheungkongella'' being a tunicate has led some experts to reassess it as a cambroernid related to '' Eldonia'', '' Herpetogaster'', and most closely to '' Phlogites'', to which it has been subjectively synonymized as.

References

Ascidiacea Cambrian chordates Cambrian animals of Asia Tunicate genera Prehistoric chordate genera Fossil taxa described in 2001 {{cambrian-animal-stub Cambrian genus extinctions