Chuaria, Tawuia, Longfengshania . Trois classes de fossiles précambriens pour un même taxon

Chuaria, Tawuia and Longfengshania are three Precambrian fossils preserved as carbonaceous compressions. They were found together in the Tuanshanzi Formation, China, circa 1700 Ma. Kumar discovered that Tawuia was used in Rampura, India, as a peduncle linking Chuaria to an adhesive base. He interpreted this combination as a seaweed bearing a ball of spores. The present paper supports the hypothesis that Chuaria, Tawuia and Longfengshania refer to three stages in the development of the same individual that was not a seaweed but a distant relative of the common ancestor of Metazoa and Fungi, a forerunner of the current Dictyostelids.