The Ediacaran fauna
Large, soft creatures unlike anything alive today
See it on the timeline →In depth
Mistaken Point in Newfoundland preserves the oldest known assemblage, around 575 million years, buried in volcanic ash in deep water below the reach of photosynthesis. Charnia, Dickinsonia and Rangea have a fractally branching construction found in no living group. Interpretations range from early animals to fungi, lichens or an entirely extinct kingdom. Dickinsonia has been resolved as an animal through cholesterol found in its tissue. The absence of mouths and guts suggests many absorbed nutrients directly through the surface. This is the first time life on Earth is large enough to see with the naked eye.
For children
Suddenly the sea floor fills with large, flat creatures shaped like fronds, discs and quilted mattresses. Some grew a metre long. They had no mouth, no eyes and no legs — and we still do not fully know what they were. Almost all of them vanished before the animals we know took over.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org