Late precambrian pennatulids (sea pens) from the eastern Yangtze Gorge,China: Paracharnia gen. nov.

Pennatulids preserved as membranous carbonised compressions from the Shibantan Member, Dengying Formation, Sinian System in the Eastern Yangtze Gorge, Hubei Province represent the first genuine discovery of the late Precambrian Ediacara-type metazoan remains in China. The specimens were initially referred to Charnia Ford 1958 and described as C. dengyingensis by Ding and Chen in 1981. A re-examination of the type material and comparing it with other late Precambrian frond-like forms, particularly those from the Ediacara assemblage of South Australia and from the Charnwood assemblage of England, indicate that this Chinese species represents a distinct genus, Paracharnia gen. nov. Its characteristic polyp leaves, individually free-standing on distinct leaf-stalks along the lateral sides of the median stem, resemble those of many living sea pens represented by Pennatula, and contribute a significant feature to the Precambrian Charniidae Glaessner 1979. Its close association with abundant macroscopic algal remains of Vendotaenia sp. and its proximity to the overlying basal Cambrian small shelly fossil assemblages in the same succession emphasise its palaeontological and biostratigraphic significance.