Ediacaran survivors

Ediacaran epifaunal tiering

Epifaunal tiering, the subdivision of vertical space within a community, is a fundamental attribute of Phanerozoic suspension-feeding communities. This paper documents tiering, including the presence of meter-tall organisms, in Neoproterozoic Ediacaran communities. Ediacaran tiering was studied from three exceptionally preserved deep-water communities at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, which cont...

Ediacaran Global Reconstructions

Ediacaran Acritarch Biostratigraphy in Australia

The Global Stratotype Section and Point for the newly defined Ediacaran System has been ratified at the base of the cap carbonate in Enorama Creek. A near-continuous section from the Marinoan glaciation to the base of the Cambrian is exposed in the Flinders Ranges, with type sections of included stratigraphic units exposed in the area around Brachina and Bunyeroo gorges. The stratigraphy and lo...

Ediacaran biota from Sonora, Mexico.

The Ediacaran biota is the earliest diverse community of macroscopic animals and protoctists. Body and trace fossils in the Clemente Formation of northwestern Sonora extend downward the geologic range of Ediacaran forms. Taxa present in the Clemente Formation include cf. Cyclomedusa plana, Sekwia sp., an erniettid (bearing an air mattress-like "pneu" body construction), and the trace fossils Lo...

Fleshing out the Ediacaran Period

The Ediacaran Global Stratotype Section and Point has now been defined at the base of the Nuccaleena Formation in the Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia. This GSSP marks the end of a major glacial epoch. In the absence of definitive biozones marking the base of the Ediacaran, the utility of this “cap carbonate’ for correlation will depend on the verification of a global fingerprint ...