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SUMMARY:Animals\, Sediments\, Slime\, Muck and Goo:  The Record of Earth
 ’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discoverin
 g Life Elsewhere - Mary Droser\, University of California\, Riverside (Dep
 artment of Earth and Planetary Sciences)​
DTSTART:20250305T160000Z
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UID:TALK224110@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Selen Etingü
DESCRIPTION:Patterns of origination and evolution of early complex life on
  this planet are interpreted largely from the fossils of the Precambrian s
 oft-bodied Ediacara Biota. Excavation and reconstruction of beds of the Ed
 iacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite at the Nilpena Ediacara National P
 ark fossil site in the Flinders Ranges area of South Australia has exposed
  nearly 400 square meters of fossiliferous bedding planes. As a result\, t
 he taphonomy and sedimentology of the succession are well-constrained\, re
 ndering it possible to disentangle ecological from environmental and tapho
 nomic signals. The excavation and reconstruction of beds at Nilpena yields
  an exceptional and unique opportunity to examine not only the taxonomic c
 omposition of Ediacara communities but also their ecological character at 
 various stages of development and the nature of the complex and diverse or
 ganic mat structures.  Preserved ecological ‘snapshots’ of fossil asse
 mblages range from immature communities of small-bodied individuals\, asso
 ciated with poorly developed organic mats to communities characterized by 
 a high diversity of macrofaunal taxa\, wide range of body sizes and the pr
 esence of dense textured organic surfaces.  Animals of the Ediacara Biota 
 had an intimate relationship with the organic mats which acted as a food s
 ource for early motile organisms and as a place of attachment for sessile 
 organisms living in high energy conditions.  Mapping of fossil beds has re
 vealed ecological interactions such as self-thinning and commensalism as w
 ell 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. \n\n
LOCATION:Martin Ryle Seminar Room\, Kavli Institute
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