Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 27 August 1982:
Vol. 217. no. 4562, pp. 783 - 792
DOI: 10.1126/science.217.4562.783
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

The Ediacarian Period and Syste: Metazoa Inherit the Earth

Preston Cloud 1 and Martin F. Glaessner 2

1 Senior Queens Fellow at the Baas Becking Geobiological Laboratory, Canberra City, ACT 2601, Australia
2 Professor Emeritus, Department of Geology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia

The Ediacarian, here defined as the initial period and system of the Phanerozoic Eon, is characterized by the oldest known multicellular animal life. The distinctive biotal assemblage comprises naked Metazoa, represented in the type region by 26 species in 18 genera and 4 or more phyla, plus simple metazoan surface tracks. Elements of this unique biota appeared worldwide at low paleolatitudes, following terminal Proterozoic glaciation. Ediacarian history lasted from about 670 million to 550 million years ago. This interval, plus Early Cambrian, was the time during which metazoan life diversified into nearly all of the major phyla and most of the invertebrate classes and orders subsequently known.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Neoproterozoic glaciation on a carbonate platform margin in Arctic Alaska and the origin of the North Slope subterrane.
F. A. Macdonald, W. C. McClelland, D. P. Schrag, and W. P. Macdonald (2009)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 448-473
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Correlating the Ediacaran of Australia.
K. Grey and C. R. Calver (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 286, 115-135
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mantle plume uplift in the sedimentary record: origin of kilometre-deep canyons within late Neoproterozoic successions, South Australia.
G. E. WILLIAMS and V. A. GOSTIN (2000)
Journal of the Geological Society 157, 759-768
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Precambrian "fossil" Vermiforma is a tectograph.
A. Seilacher, M. Meschede, E. W. Bolton, and H. Luginsland (2000)
Geology 28, 235-238
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Activation of the genetically defined m1 muscarinic receptor potentiates N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor currents in hippocampal pyramidal cells.
M. J. Marino, S. T. Rouse, A. I. Levey, L. T. Potter, and P. J. Conn (1998)
PNAS 95, 11465-11470
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Vendobionta and Psammocorallia: lost constructions of Precambrian evolution.
A. SEILACHER (1992)
Journal of the Geological Society 149, 607-613
   Abstract »    PDF »
Abrupt Climate Change and Extinction Events in Earth History.
T. J. Crowley, T. J. Crowley, and G. R. North (1988)
Science 240, 996-1002
   Abstract »    PDF »
Globins: A Case Study in Molecular Phylogeny.
M. Goodman, J. Czelusniak, B.F. Koop, D.A. Tagle, and J.L. Slightom (1987)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 52, 875-890
   Abstract »    PDF »
Geochronology and the geological record.
N.J. Snelling (1985)
Geological Society, London, Memoirs 10, 3-9
   Abstract »    PDF »
Subdivision of the Precambrian.
A. E. Wright (1985)
Geological Society, London, Memoirs 10, 29-40
   Abstract »    PDF »
Ediacaran (Precambrian) Fossils from the Wernecke Mountains, Northwestern Canada.
H. J. Hofmann, H. J. HOFMANN, W. H. FRITZ, and G. M. NARBONNE (1983)
Science 221, 455-457
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)