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The Ediacaran (/ˌiːdiˈækərən/; formerly Vendian) biota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (c. 635–538.8 Mya). These were enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms.[1][2] Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The term "Ediacara biota" has received criticism from some scientists due to its alleged inconsistency, arbitrary exclusion of certain fossils, and inability to be precisely defined.[3]
The Ediacaran biota may have undergone evolutionary radiation in a proposed event called the Avalon explosion, 575 million years ago.[4][5] 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 dominated the Ediacaran fossil record, although relationships are still a matter of debate.
The organisms of the Ediacaran Period first appeared around 600 million years ago and flourished until the cusp of the Cambrian 538.8 million years ago, when the characteristic communities of fossils vanished. A diverse Ediacaran community was discovered in 1995 in Sonora, Mexico, and is approximately 555 million years in age, roughly coeval with Ediacaran fossils of the Ediacara Hills in South Australia and the White Sea on the coast of Russia.[6][7][8] While rare fossils that may represent survivors have been found as late as the Middle Cambrian (510–500 Mya), the earlier fossil communities disappear from the record at the end of the Ediacaran leaving only curious fragments of once-thriving ecosystems.[9] Multiple hypotheses exist to explain the disappearance of this biota, including preservation bias, a changing environment, the advent of predators and competition from other life-forms. A sampling, reported in 2018, of late Ediacaran strata across Baltica (< 560 Mya) suggests the flourishing of the organisms coincided with conditions of low overall productivity with a very high percentage produced by bacteria, which may have led to high concentrations of dissolved organic material in the oceans.[10]
Determining where Ediacaran organisms fit in the tree of life has proven challenging; it is not even established that most of them were animals, with suggestions that they were lichens (fungus-alga symbionts), algae, protists known as foraminifera, fungi or microbial colonies, or hypothetical intermediates between plants and animals.[11] The morphology and habit of some taxa (e.g. Funisia dorothea) suggest relationships to Porifera or Cnidaria (e.g. Auroralumina).[12][13][14] Kimberella may show a similarity to molluscs, and other organisms have been thought to possess bilateral symmetry, although this is controversial. Most macroscopic fossils are morphologically distinct from later life-forms: they resemble discs, tubes, mud-filled bags or quilted mattresses. Due to the difficulty of deducing evolutionary relationships among these organisms, some palaeontologists have suggested that these represent completely extinct lineages that do not resemble any living organism. Palaeontologist Adolf Seilacher proposed a separate subkingdom level category Vendozoa (now renamed Vendobionta)[15] in the Linnaean hierarchy for the Ediacaran biota. If these enigmatic organisms left no descendants, their strange forms might be seen as a "failed experiment" in multicellular life, with later multicellular life evolving independently from unrelated single-celled organisms.[16] A 2018 study confirmed that one of the period's most-prominent and iconic fossils, Dickinsonia, included cholesterol,[17] suggesting affinities to animals, fungi, or red algae.[18]
The Ediacara biota in context | ||||||||||||||||
−650 — – −640 — – −630 — – −620 — – −610 — – −600 — – −590 — – −580 — – −570 — – −560 — – −550 — – −540 — – −530 — – −520 — – −510 — – −500 — – −490 — | Cryogenian Ediacaran Cambrian |
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Axis scale: million years
References: Waggoner (1998),[19] Hofmann, Narbonne, & Aitken (1990)[20] | ||||||||||||||||
- ^ Watson, Traci (28 October 2020). "These bizarre ancient species are rewriting animal evolution". Nature (news). 586 (7831): 662–665. Bibcode:2020Natur.586..662W. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-02985-z. PMID 33116283.
- ^ Stratigraphic chart 2022 (PDF) (Report). International Stratigraphic Commission. February 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
- ^ MacGabhann, Breandán Anraoi (January 2014). "There is no such thing as the 'Ediacara Biota'". Geoscience Frontiers. 5 (1): 53–62. doi:10.1016/j.gsf.2013.08.001. hdl:20.500.11820/23ba9403-9b3f-484e-8a0f-21587c6baf67. S2CID 56111824. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- ^ "Two explosive evolutionary events shaped early history Of multicellular life". Science Daily (Press release). January 2008.
- ^ Shen, Bing; Dong, Lin; Xiao, Shuhai; Kowalewski, Michał (2008). "The Avalon explosion: Evolution of Ediacara morphospace". Science. 319 (5859): 81–84. Bibcode:2008Sci...319...81S. doi:10.1126/science.1150279. PMID 18174439. S2CID 206509488.
- ^ McMenamin, M.A.S. (14 May 1996). "Ediacaran biota from Sonora, Mexico". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 93 (10): 4990–4993. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.4990M. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.10.4990. PMC 39393. PMID 11607679.
- ^ McMenamin, M.A.S. (2018). Deep Time Analysis: A Coherent View of the History of Life. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Geology. ISBN 978-3-319-74255-7.
- ^ Narbonne, Guy (2008). The Gaskiers glaciation as a significant divide in Ediacaran history and stratigraphy. 33rd International Geological Congress. Abstracts. Oslo. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ConwayMorris1993was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Bekker, Andrey; Sokur, Tetyana; Shumlyanskyy, Leonid; Christopher K. Junium; Podkovyrov, Victor; Kuznetsov, Anton; et al. (4 May 2018). "Ediacara biota flourished in oligotrophic and bacterially dominated marine environments across Baltica". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 1807. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.1807P. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04195-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 5935690. PMID 29728614.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Pflugwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Droser, M.L.; Gehling, J.G. (21 March 2008). "Synchronous aggregate growth in an abundant new Ediacaran tubular organism". Science. 319 (5870): 1660–1662. Bibcode:2008Sci...319.1660D. doi:10.1126/science.1152595. PMID 18356525. S2CID 23002564.
- ^ Dunn, F.S.; Kenchington, C.G.; Parry, L.A.; Clark, J.W.; Kendall, R.S.; Wilby, P.R. (25 July 2022). "A crown-group cnidarian from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest, UK". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 6 (8): 1095–1104. doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01807-x. PMC 9349040. PMID 35879540.
- ^ Amos, Jonathan (25 July 2022). "Ancient fossil is earliest known animal predator". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Seilacher1992was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Narbonne, Guy (June 2006). The Origin and Early Evolution of Animals. Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering. Queen's University. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^ Bobrovskiy, Ilya; Hope, Janet M.; Ivantsov, Andrey; Nettersheim, Benjamin J.; Hallmann, Christian; Brocks, Jochen J. (21 September 2018). "Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals". Science. 361 (6408): 1246–1249. Bibcode:2018Sci...361.1246B. doi:10.1126/science.aat7228. hdl:1885/230014. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 30237355.
- ^ Gold, D.A. (2018). "The slow rise of complex life as revealed through biomarker genetics". Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 2 (2): 191–199. doi:10.1042/etls20170150. PMID 32412622. S2CID 90887224.
- ^ Waggoner, Ben (1998). "Interpreting the earliest Metazoan fossils: What can we learn?". Integrative and Comparative Biology. 38 (6): 975–982. doi:10.1093/icb/38.6.975. ISSN 1540-7063.
- ^ Hofmann, H.J.; Narbonne, G.M.; Aitken, J.D. (1990). "Ediacaran remains from intertillite beds in northwestern Canada". Geology. 18 (12): 1199–1202. Bibcode:1990Geo....18.1199H. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1990)018<1199:ERFIBI>2.3.CO;2.