Ediacaran fauna: strange first animals before the explosion
Soft quilted creatures lived 635 to 541 million years ago with no mouths or eyes, mostly vanishing before the Cambrian.
Quilted soft bodies without mouths
Between 635 and 541 million years ago the oceans held Dickinsonia, Charnia and Spriggina, flat quilted mats up to 140 centimeters long with no mouths, guts, eyes or legs for hunting.
Many absorbed food through skin, farmed algae inside tissues or grazed bacterial mats on the seafloor, living quietly in calm deep water with oxygen only 5 percent of modern levels.
Famous sites and a sudden exit
The best fossils lie in Australia Ediacara Hills with 100 species, Canada Mistaken Point with 5000 impressions, Russia White Sea coast and Namibia, preserved as sandstone casts of soft bodies.
Nearly all vanished 541 million years ago when burrowing Cambrian predators, rising oxygen and shifting seas arrived, leaving only a few survivors while arthropods and worms took over.
- Time span lasted 94 million years before Cambrian.
- Dickinsonia grew to 140 cm yet had no gut.
- Charnia lived anchored like a fern frond.
- 5 sites on 4 continents preserve thousands.
- Almost all groups died out 541 million years ago.