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 very small. Stipe short and robust, seemingly with a very small basal disc at the proximal end. Many hair-like thecae, running out at the upper end of the stipe, consisting of the crown part. Thecae slender tubes which group into the upper end of stipe and gradually diminish in apertural portion."
According to Lin Yan-kun (1984), this species "differs from all other species in the very small size of the rhabdosome and the character of a thickened stipe with a disc of attachment in this form reveals that it is a benthonic form living at the sea-bottom" (p. 479). |
