This fossil was originally described from the Ordovician of China by Lin Yao-kun (1984) as a graptolite species.
Later, the genus Medusaegraptus Ruedemann was reinterpreted as codiacean (Mierzejewski 1986) or dasycladacean (Lo Duca 1990) green alga.
Original diagnosis (p. 479):
"Rhabdosome small. Stipe straight or slightly flexuosus, possibly with a very small appendage at the proximal end. Crown part at distal end composed of less numerous (about 10) thin tubular thecae, which grow obliquely upwards. Thecae which arise from upper part of the short stipe appearing flexuosus and silk-like, with a rapid increase in apertural portion."
According to Lin Yan-kun (1984), this form "resembles Palmatophycus established by Boucek in 1941 in the form of the rhabdosome, but differs from the latter in the character of the thecae and the lateral branches" (p. 479). |
