''Paracharnia'' is a reassessed genus of a

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

reported by Ding and Chen (1981). It is the first

Ediacaran The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last ...

metazoan Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a ho ...

fossilized remains found in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, taken from the Shibantan Member,

Dengying Formation The Dengying Formation is an upper Ediacaran (551-541 Ma) fossiliferous geologic Formation (geology), formation found in South China. It was deposited on a shallow marine carbonate platform. Members Listed by ascending age: * The Hamajing Member ...

Sinian The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic Eon ...

System in the Eastern

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

Gorge,

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

Province. It was initially classified as ''Charnia dengyingensis'', but Sun Weiguo in 1986, comparing this to findings from Charnwood in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and the Ediacara assemblage of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, identified it as a new genus. ''Paracharnia'' is a pennatulid within the taxon of Rangeomorpha. It is closely associated with macroscopic algal remains of ''Vendotaenia'' and dense Cambrian shelly fossil deposits, suggesting its paleontological relevance. The original fossil extraction from Ding and Chen (1981) is notable for its distinction from the original ''Charnia'' from Ford (1958) due to the arrangement of each of its polyp leaves and the length of the peduncle. Each polyp leaf in the 1981 recovery is smaller and further out on the stem.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q109974401 Charniidae Fossils of China