Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo: The Record of Earth’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discovering Life Elsewhere

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• Mary Droser, University of California, Riverside (Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences)​
• Wednesday 05 March 2025, 16:00-17:00
• Martin Ryle Seminar Room, Kavli Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Selen Etingü.

Patterns of origination and evolution of early complex life on this planet are interpreted largely from the fossils of the Precambrian soft-bodied Ediacara Biota. Excavation and reconstruction of beds of the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite at the Nilpena Ediacara National Park fossil site in the Flinders Ranges area of South Australia has exposed nearly 400 square meters of fossiliferous bedding planes. As a result, the taphonomy and sedimentology of the succession are well-constrained, rendering it possible to disentangle ecological from environmental and taphonomic signals. The excavation and reconstruction of beds at Nilpena yields an exceptional and unique opportunity to examine not only the taxonomic composition of Ediacara communities but also their ecological character at various stages of development and the nature of the complex and diverse organic mat structures. Preserved ecological ‘snapshots’ of fossil assemblages range from immature communities of small-bodied individuals, associated with poorly developed organic mats to communities characterized by a high diversity of macrofaunal taxa, wide range of body sizes and the presence of dense textured organic surfaces. Animals of the Ediacara Biota had an intimate relationship with the organic mats which acted as a food source for early motile organisms and as a place of attachment for sessile organisms living in high energy conditions. Mapping of fossil beds has revealed ecological interactions such as self-thinning and commensalism as well as new body plan – most recently, the oldest ecdysozoan and evidence of chirality. Together with data from other fossil sites around the world, it is very clear that the dawn and early evolution of the animal life is recorded in the Ediacaran Period.

This talk is part of the LCLU Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Cambridge Astronomy Talks
• LCLU Seminars
• Martin Ryle Seminar Room, Kavli Institute

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