The Ediacaran - unlocking the secrets behind early animal evolution

The sudden appearance of animals in the fossil record, after billions of years of microbial life, is one of the most dramatic events in the history of life on Earth. These oldest known animals are found in the Ediacaran time period (635–539 Ma), just before the Cambrian radiation.  Studying Ediacaran evolution is fraught with difficulties due to the unique anatomies of Ediacaran organisms. But we have one potential avenue of attack - the preservation of Ediacaran fossils is exceptional, with thousands of organisms preserved where they lived. To exploit that information we can use a suite of ecological methodologies, normally only used on extant communities. This rich data source, combined with cutting edge technological and ecological advances, has transformed our understanding of Ediacaran life. We have used a micron-resolution laser scanner to capture almost 35,000 fossils in-situ across from Newfoundland, Canada and Charnwood Forest, UK. This unprecedented dataset has been used with careful spatial and Bayesian approaches to enable the teasing-apart of Ediacaran eco-evolutionary dynamics, and how competition, the environment and reproduction these Ediacaran organisms may be driving Ediacaran diversification and paving the way for the Cambrian radiation.