The enigmatic Ediacaran (late Precambrian) genusRangeaand related forms

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Abstract
The late Precambrian genusRangeaGürich, 1929, a frond-like fossil composed of repeated foliate elements, is one of the first discovered forms belonging to the now widely known soft-bodied assemblages characterizing the Ediacaran Period.Rangeaoccurs together with the generaPteridiniumGürich, 1933, andErniettaPflug, 1966, in the lower parts of the Nama Group, Namibia (South West Africa).Investigation of the preservation and structure ofRangea, utilizing a methodology similar to that established by Wade (1968, 1971), indicates that it was probably a colonial octocoral consisting of a large tapering primary polyp, or oozoid, and a number of leaf-shaped, conjoined fronds which bore the feeding polyps; it is suggested to belong to a group of early Ediacaran anthozoans which provide a fossil link between the still living Telestacea and Pennatulacea. Similar investigations ofPteridiniumandErniettadisclose that their structure is different fromRangeaand does not support ideas that they are related to it.