The Ediacara Period, named after the Ediacara Hills in South Australia, is a geological period from approximately 635 to 542 million years ago. It presents the earliest fossils of macroscopic multicellular life, including the “Ediacaran fauna”. The period began after the Marino Glaciation, the most severe planetary glaciation of the last billion years, and some scientists believe that the world’s oceans experienced near freezing episodes during this period. Life may have survived in refugia such as around deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
The Ediacara Period (named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, where fossils from this period have been found) is a geological period between approximately 635 and 542 million years ago. The Ediacaran period presents the first macroscopic multicellular fossils, dated up to 610 million years ago (Twitya formation), even if the most diverse communities are concentrated around 575 – 542 million years ago. Hypothetical fossil embryos have been dated to the dawn of the Ediacaran, 632.5 million years ago.
The Ediacaran Period began shortly after the most severe planetary glaciation (ice age) of the last billion years, the Marino Glaciation. This ice age, which spanned from 745 to 635 million years ago, was so extreme that the period preceding the Ediacaran is called the Cryogenian period, from the Greek “cryo” meaning “cold.” Some scientists believe that the world’s oceans experienced near freezing episodes during this period, leading to a “snowball Earth” scenario. Glacier deposits have been found at equatorial latitudes. Life may have survived in refugia such as around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The Ediacaran-Cryogenian split is when the Ice Age finally ended.
Although life in the form of microbes has existed since at least 2.7 billion years ago, and microbes with nuclei (eukaryotes) have existed since 1.2 billion years ago, the Ediacaran represents the earliest incontrovertible fossils of multicellular life. This family of life, the “Ediacaran fauna”, consists of a variety of plant-like animals of unknown affinity with a tufted appearance, having the form of fronds, discs, pouches and “inflated mattresses”. Alongside the Ediacaran fauna lived some precursors of modern phyla, such as the trilobite-like Spriggina, which are not generally considered “Ediacaran fauna” but rather “non-Ediacaran organisms that lived during the Ediacaran period.” It’s confusing, but the term “Ediacaran” is also used to refer to a distinct grouping of ancient organisms and the geological period itself.
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