The Ediacaran is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic Eon as well as the last of the so-called "Precambrian supereon", before the beginning of the subsequent Cambrian Period marks the start of the Phanerozoic Eon, where recognizable fossil evidence of life becomes common.
Dickinsonia is a genus of extinct organism, most likely an animal, that lived during the late Ediacaran period in what is now Australia, China, Russia, and Ukraine. It is one of the best known members of the Ediacaran biota. The individual Dickinsonia typically resembles a bilaterally symmetrical ribbed oval. Its affinities are presently unknown; its mode of growth has been considered consistent with a stem-group bilaterian affinity, though various other affinities have been proposed. It lived during the late Ediacaran. The discovery of cholesterol molecules in fossils of Dickinsonia lends support to the idea that Dickinsonia was an animal, though these results have been questioned.
Ediacara Hills, also known as Ediacaran Hills, are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around 650 kilometres (400 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide. They are within the Nilpena Ediacara National Park.
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about 200 km (125 mi) north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over 430 km (265 mi) from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna.
Tribrachidium heraldicum is a tri-radially symmetric fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran (Vendian) seas. In life, it was hemispherical in form. T. heraldicum is the best known member of the extinct group Trilobozoa.
Parvancorina is a genus of shield-shaped bilaterally symmetrical fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran seafloor. It has some superficial similarities with the Cambrian trilobite-like arthropods.
Ovatoscutum concentricum is one of many enigmatic organisms known from the Ediacaran deposits of the Flinders Ranges, Australia, and the White Sea area in Russia, dating around 555 Ma.
The Ediacaranbiota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period. These were enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms. 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.
Albumares brunsae is a tri-radially symmetrical fossil animal that lived in the late Ediacaran seafloor. It is a member of the extinct group Trilobozoa.
Rugoconites is a genus of Ediacaran biota found as fossils in the form of a circular or oval-like impression preserved in high relief, six or more centimeters in diameter. The fossils are surrounded by frills that have been interpreted as sets of tentacles. The bifurcating radial ribs, spreading from a central dome, serve to distinguish this genus from the sponge Palaeophragmodictya, and may represent the channels of the gastrovascular system. Fossils of Rugoconites have been interpreted as early sponges, although this is countered by Sepkoski et al. (2002), who interpreted the organism as a free-swimming jellyfish-like cnidarian; similar to Ovatoscutum. However, the fossil is consistently preserved as a neat circular form and its general morphology does not vary, therefore a benthic and perhaps slow-moving or sessile lifestyle is more likely. Ivantstov & Fedonkin (2002), suggest that Rugoconites may possess tri-radial symmetry and be a member of the Trilobozoa.
Funisia is a genus of animal containing the single species F. dorothea. It is an extinct animal from the Ediacaran biota, discovered in South Australia in 2008 by Mary L. Droser and James G. Gehling.
Nilpena Station is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia.
Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which includes the former Ediacara Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the northern Flinders Ranges, in the state of South Australia. It is located about around 551 km (342 mi) north of the city of Adelaide, around 30 kilometres south-west of the town of Leigh Creek in the state's Far North.
Obamus coronatus is a torus-shaped Ediacaran fossil from the Rawnsley Quartzite of South Australia named in honor of former American President Barack Obama by the lab of Mary L. Droser.
Archaeichnium is a member of the Ediacaran biota first described by Martin Glaessner in 1963. It is characterized as a tubular fossil found in the Nama group of South West Africa.
Ikaria wariootia is an early example of a wormlike, 2–7 mm-long (0.1–0.3 in) bilaterian organism. Its fossils are found in rocks of the Ediacara Member of South Australia that are estimated to be between 560 and 555 million years old. A representative of the Ediacaran biota, Ikaria lived during the Ediacaran period, roughly 15 million years before the Cambrian, when the Cambrian explosion occurred and where widespread fossil evidence of modern bilaterian taxa appear in the fossil record.
Robert Riepma Gaines is an American geologist who teaches at Pomona College in Claremont, California. From July 2019 to June 2022, he served as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the college. He is known for his research on fossils in Burgess Shale-type deposits, having been a member of two teams that made two of the most important fossil discoveries in recent decades, one in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, Canada and the other in the Yangtze Gorges area in South China.
Attenborites janeae is a species of Ediacaran organism from South Australia first described by a team led by Palaeontologist Mary L. Droser in 2018. The genus Attenborites was named after Sir David Attenborough. The bed in which the first 52 specimens from Australia of A. janeae was given the ARB designation "Alice's Restaurant Bed", and has been given that nickname for its abundance of rare taxa and newly described ones and is also a reference to Arlo Guthrie's 1967 song, "Alice's Restaurant". The new taxon is unique from all of these other taxa in the way that it has a much more irregular morphology than the other 52 specimens.
