This species is named on the basis of 12 disc-like impressions from this single locality, found on multiple bedding planes. The author discusses at length the possibility that Charniodiscus concentricus could be the basal disc of Charnia masoni (first described in the same publication), and figures this possibility in a reconstruction (p. 212, Pl. 13, fig. 3). The author concludes "It is concluded that Charnia masoni may most rationally be interpreted as an algal frond and that Charniodiscus concentricus may be the basal part of the same alga.... The only likely alternative is that they represent a primitive coelenterate of unknown affinity".
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Synonym: Cyclomedusa cliffi Boynton and Ford 1995
Full reference: T. D. Ford. 1958. Pre-Cambrian fossils from Charnwood Forest. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 31(3):211-217
Belongs to Charniodiscus according to D. Pérez-Pinedo et al. 2022
See also Boynton 2006 and Fedonkin et al. 2007
Sister taxa: Charniodiscus oppositus, Charniodiscus procerus, Charniodiscus yorgensis
Type specimens:
- Charniodiscus concentricus: No2383/2 (University of Leicester, U.K.), an other (Discoidal holdfast).
- Cyclomedusa cliffi: G730/1993 Leicestershire Museum. Its type locality is Cliffe Hill quarry, Markfield, which is in an Ediacaran marine siltstone in the Bradgate Formation of the United Kingdom.
Ecology: stationary upper-level epifaunal osmotroph-suspension feeder
Distribution:
• Ediacaran of Brazil (1 collection), the Russian Federation (1), the United Kingdom (3)
Total: 5 collections each including a single occurrence
Specimen images are retrieved through the ePANDDA API.
Click image to enlarge. Click to access iDigBio record.