Charnia

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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. It strongly resembles a chestnut leaf. There are two species, Charnia masoni, discovered by Roger Mason, a schoolboy, in 1957 in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, and Charnia wardi, discovered in 1978 in southeast Newfoundland. The genus was named after Charnwood Forest (the area in which the first species was found). It was originally interpreted as an algae (Ford) but is likely to be a sea pen (Glaessner). One modern interpretation 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, Newfoundland, Iran, Olenek, South Australia, and the White Sea Coast of Russia.

Charnia is the oldest complex fossil found anywhere in the world. Charnia wardi has been found in the Drook formation in Newfoundland at around 580 mya. C. masoni followed soon afterwards. The only earlier animal like fossil found in earlier rocks is Nimbia. This suggests that Charnia could be an ancestor to the Eumetazoa.

Charnia wardi is also the longest Ediacaran fossil measuring up to 2 meters long. It was anchored to the sediment in the sea bed in deep water where it would not be disturbed by waves.