Stromatoveris

Stromatoveris
Temporal range: Cambrian
Artist reconstruction as a sessile basal ctenophore
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Petalonamae
Genus: Stromatoveris
Shu et al. 2006
Species:
S. psygmoglena
Binomial name
Stromatoveris psygmoglena
Shu et al. 2006

Stromatoveris psygmoglena is a genus of fossil organism from the Chengjiang deposits of Yunnan that was originally aligned with the fossil Charnia (strictly, the Charniomorpha) from the Ediacara biota. However, such an affinity was thought to be developmentally implausible and so S. psygmoglena was thought to be either a sessile basal ctenophore, or a sessile organism closely related to ctenophores instead. Nevertheless, a 2018 phylogenetic analysis by Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill and Jian Han indicated that Stromatoveris was a member of Animalia and closely related to ediacaran frond-like lifeforms.