What is the Ediacaran Biota?
The Ediacaran biota are a mysterious type of life found in the fossil record prior to the Cambrian era, which began about 542 million years ago. The Ediacaran biota were the first multicellular life forms which left fossils. Paleontologists do not even completely agree on whether or not these creatures can even be categorized using the current biological classification scheme. The Ediacaran biota emerged about 610 million years ago and had largely disappeared by the beginning of the Cambrian. Based on how alien they are to modern life, some paleontologists believe the Ediacaran biota were a “failed experiment” which died out, and that the biodiversity which later emerged from the Cambrian was based on another evolutionary trajectory from single-celled organisms. About 100 different Ediacaran species have been described, with roughly 10 surviving past the period. The period known as the Ediacaran began 630 million years ago, immediately after the 220 million-year-long Cryogenian Period,
