Hydrozoan-like Ediacaran fossils from South China

An abundant and diversified assemblage of benthic fossils from the Ediacaran Doushantuo black shales in the Wenghui section of Guizhou Province contains two discoidal carbonaceous forms, Kullingia rotadiscopsis sp. nov. and Eoaequorea xingi gen. & sp. nov. The fossils have well-preserved concentric rings and radiating lines, and resemble many circular casts and moulds in Edia-caran clastic and carbonate rocks in the world, such as Aspidella, Ediacaria, Cyclomedusa, Eoporpita, Ovatoscutum, Spriggia and Kullingia. The Doushantuo carbonaceous macrofossils help us to inquire into the current functional identifications of circular disks as the holdfasts of unknown organism or scratch circles. Although there is not sufficient correspondence in morphology to warrant reinterpreting all previously described Kullingia and Aspidella form-genus-type structures, these carbonaceous compressions are prone to be the ancestor of pelagic jellyfish-like organisms with medusoid hydrozoan affinity.