Tawuia

Tawuia Temporal range: Statherian to Cambrian Stage 3, 1630–518 Ma Pha. Proterozoic Archean Had.
Fossil specimen, Geological Museum of China
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	incertae sedis
Genus:	† Tawuia H.J.Hofmann, 1979

Reconstruction as a slime mold-like organism

A reconstruction of Tawuia as a coenocytic macroalgae with epibionts.

Tawuia is a millimetric disc or sausage-shaped, most likely multicellular (although coenocytic) macrofossil from the Proterozoic.

The fossils are often preserved as organic compressions. They are sometimes considered to represent microbial structures; ^[1] some authors affiliate them with slime molds. ^[1] However, Tawuia is instead likely an alga, as sub-cellular structures supporting this have been preserved. ^[2] Stratigraphically, they range from 1,630  million years ago ^[3] to the early Cambrian. ^[4]

References

1. Teyssèdre, B. (2003), "Trois classes de fossiles precambriens pour un meme taxon", Comptes Rendus Palevol (in French), 6 (503): 508–510, doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2003.09.023 ^{[ dead link ‍]}
2. Tang, Qing; Pang, Ke; Li, Guangjin; Chen, Lei; Yuan, Xunlai; Sharma, Mukund; Xiao, Shuhai (August 2021). "The Proterozoic macrofossil Tawuia as a coenocytic eukaryote and a possible macroalga". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 576: 110485. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110485.
3. Srivastava, P.; Bali, R. (2006). "Proterozoic carbonaceous remains from the Chorhat Sandstone: oldest fossils of the Vindhyan Supergroup, Central India". Geobios. 39 (6): 873–878. Bibcode:2006Geobi..39..873S. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2006.02.001.
4. Li, Rui-Yun; Fu, Dong-Jing; Zhang, Xing-Liang (22 December 2022). "Chuaria Walcott from the early Cambrian Qingjiang biota: a taxon persisted for billions of years". Palaeoworld. 33 (1): 11–21. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2022.12.008.