Ediacaran biota

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The Ediacaran biota ( EE-dee-ACK-ər-ən; formerly Vendian) is a group of large, biologically complex, mostly soft-bodied organisms, which lived during the Ediacaran Period (c. 635–538.8 Mya). These were unusual tube and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms. Three distinct assemblages of these organisms have been discovered, preserved as trace fossils in Ediacaran sandstone. They represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The Ediacaran biota may have undergone evolutionary radiation in a proposed event called the Avalon explosion, 575 million years ago. This was after the Earth had thawed from the Cryogenian period's extensive glaciation. This biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota appears to have almost completely replaced the organisms that...

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