The cloudinids, an early metazoan family containing the genera Acuticocloudina, Cloudina and Conotubus, lived in the late Ediacaran period about 550 million years ago. and became extinct at the base of the Cambrian. They formed millimetre-scale conical fossils consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another; the appearance of the organism itself remains unknown. The name Cloudina honors the 20th-century geologist and paleontologist Preston Cloud.
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.
Kimberella is an extinct genus of bilaterian known only from rocks of the Ediacaran period. The slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt in a manner similar to the gastropods, although its affinity with this group is contentious.
A microfossil is a fossil that is generally between 0.001 mm and 1 mm in size, the visual study of which requires the use of light or electron microscopy. A fossil which can be studied with the naked eye or low-powered magnification, such as a hand lens, is referred to as a macrofossil.
Hiemalora is a fossil of the Ediacaran biota, reaching around 3 cm in diameter, which superficially resembles a sea anemone. The genus has a sack-like body with faint radiating lines originally interpreted as tentacles, but discovery of a frond-like structure seemingly attached to some Heimalora has added weight to a competing interpretation: that it represents the holdfast of a larger organism.
Rangea is a frond-like Ediacaran fossil with six-fold radial symmetry. It is the type genus of the rangeomorphs.
Aspidella is an Ediacaran disk-shaped fossil of uncertain affinity. It is known from the single species A. terranovica.
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.
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.
Ernietta is an extinct genus of Ediacaran organisms with an infaunal lifestyle. Fossil preservations and modeling indicate this organism was sessile and “sack”-shaped. It survived partly buried in substrate, with an upturned bell-shaped frill exposed above the sediment-water interface. Ernietta have been recovered from present-day Namibia, and are a part of the Ediacaran biota, a late Proterozoic radiation of multicellular organisms. They are among the earliest complex multicellular organisms and are known from the late Ediacaran. Ernietta plateauensis remains the sole species of the genus.
Eoandromeda is an Ediacaran organism consisting of eight radial spiral arms, and known from two taphonomic modes: the standard Ediacara type preservation in Australia, and as carbonaceous compressions from the Doushantuo formation of China, where it is abundant.
Somatohelix is a genus of curvilinear, spiralling tubular fossil, 2–7 mm wide and 3–14 cm long, from the Ediacaran deposites of the South Australia that was originally interpreted as a trace fossil; a larger amount of better-preserved material since facilitated its reconstruction as the remains of an organism of uncertain nature. Modern analogues of organisms with a helical constructional morphology are found not only in disparate Kingdoms, but also in multiple domains.
Oohkotokia is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur within the subfamily Ankylosaurinae. It is known from the upper levels of the Two Medicine Formation of Montana, United States. The discovery of Oohkotokia supports that Ankylosaurine dinosaurs existed and flourished continuously in Montana and/or Alberta throughout the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian stages in the Late Cretaceous period. It was a large, heavily built, quadrupedal, herbivore, that could grow up to 5 metres (16 ft) long and weigh up to 2 metric tons.
Solza margarita is an extinct animal of uncertain phylogeny which lived about 555 mya in the Ediacaran period.
Eocyathispongia is a genus of sponge-like organisms which lived in the Ediacaran period about 60 million years before the Cambrian. The current fossil record has found this genus in only one location, the Doushantuo Formation in Guizhou, China. It lived in the shallow parts of seas, filter feeding.
Gaojiashania cyclus is a worm-like, soft bodied organism with an epibenthic mode of life. Composed of repeating ring-like units, G. cyclus is flexible, soft, and not easily preserved. Pyritization prior to decay of soft parts results in the well preserved casts and molds we see today.
Ichnusa is a genus of discoidal cnidarians that existed during the Ediacaran, 635-541 Million Years ago (MYA) discovered on the island of Sardinia, Italy. The genus is monotypic, only containing the species Ichnusa cocozzi. Palaeontologists think that Ichnusa represented a cnidarian of unknown affinities, with I. cocozzi being put in the Scyphozoa.
Gibbavasis kushkii is a species of an enigmatic member of the Ediacaran biota from central Iran. G. kushkii has been compared to the Namibian Ausia. The genus name "Gibbavasis" is a combination of the two Latin words Gibba and Vasis.
Curviacus is a genus of Ediacaran organism of uncertain lineage that displays a modular body plan consisting of crescent shaped chambers. It contains a single species, Curviacus ediacaranus.
