Ediacaran Period

Cryogenian Period

EDIACARAN PERIOD

635mya to 538.8mya

Cambrian Period

The discovery of the first pre-Cambrian fossils were dismissed at first. It was believed nothing that large was alive before the Cambiran Era. However, after extensive research and the uncovering of thousands of pre-Cambrian fossils, the Ediacaran Period was officially ratified as a geological period in 2004. The fossils found from this time period represent a unique and distinct expansion in biodiversity, now known as the Avalon explosion

Knoll, A., Wlater, M., Narbonne, G., & Christie-Blick, N. (2006). The ediacaran period: A new addition to the Geologic Time Scale. Lethaia, 39(1), 13–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/00241160500409223 Liu, A. G., Kenchington, C. G., & Mitchell, E. G. (2015). Remarkable insights into the paleoecology of the Avalonian ediacaran macrobiota. Gondwana Research, 27(4), 1355–1380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2014.11.002 Williams, G. E. (2000). Geological constraints on the Precambrian history of Earth's rotation and the moon's orbit. Reviews of Geophysics, 38(1), 37–59. https://doi.org/10.1029/1999rg900016