Changchengia

Changchengia Temporal range: Statherian–Calymmian Pha. Proterozoic Archean Had.
Reconstruction of Changchengia stipitata
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	incertae sedis
Genus:	†Changchengia Yan & Liu, 1997
Species:	†C. stipitata
Binomial name
†Changchengia stipitata Yan and Liu, 1997

Changchengia is a genus of possible alga from the early-mid Proterozoic. It contains one species, Changchengia stipitata. This genus is known from various formations, such as the Olive Shales of the Vindhya Range[1] and the Saraipali Formation in India,[2] alongside the Chuanlinggou Formation of China.[3]

Description

• Reconstructions of three different forms of Changchengia sp.
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Changchengia is between 0.7 and 40 mm (0.03 and 1.57 in) long and between 0.5 to 4 mm (0.02 to 0.16 in) wide, with a thin blade-like thallus. In C. stipitata the thallus is usually ribbon-shaped or lanceolate with folded and lamellose margins, with the widest point in the middle and tapering towards the base and tip. However, fossils from the Chuanlinggou Formation are more ovoid or obcordate in shape, alongside tapering holdfasts. The base is obtuse and contacts with a long and linear parastem, which itself connects to a holdfast. This genus shares many morphological similarities with Tuanshanzia, and infact it was classified within this genus at first.[2] However, a conspicuous difference between the two is that Tuanshanzia has no parastem, and instead its thallus slowly narrows towards the holdfast.

References

1. Sharma, Mukund (December 2006). "Late Palaeoproterozoic (Statherian) carbonaceous films from the Olive Shale (Koldaha Shale), Semri Group, Vindhyan Supergroup, India" (PDF). Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. 51 (2): 27–35.
2. Babu, Rupendra; Singh, Veeru Kant (July 2011). "Record of aquatic carbonaceous metaphytic remains from the Proterozoic Singhora Group of Chhattisgarh Supergroup, India and their significance". Journal of Evolutionary Biology Research. 3 (5): 47–66.
3. Liu, Jingqi; Zhang, Yang; Shi, Xiaoying; Chen, Anfeng; Tang, Dongjie; Yang, Tinglu (November 2023). "Macroscopic fossils from the Chuanlinggou Formation of North China: evidence for an earlier origin of multicellular algae in the late Palaeoproterozoic". Palaeontology. 66 (6). doi:10.1111/pala.12685.