570 vanished lives

161Precambrian

Its flat oval body moved across microbial mats like a rhythmically quilted cushion, leaving feeding traces behind.

162Precambrian

A horseshoe-shaped front led a body of offset leaflike units, giving it the appearance of a flattened soft worm.

163Precambrian

A featherlike body of repeating branches was anchored by a disc in deep water, yet it had neither chlorophyll nor a mouth.

164Precambrian

Its low oval body crawled across microbial mats while a front feeding structure left fan-shaped sets of scratches.

201Precambrian

Rows of quilted sacks lived half-buried in sand, forming one of the Ediacaran seafloor's strangest communities.

202Precambrian

Six branching vanes surrounded a central axis, making the organism resemble a soft pine cone standing on the seabed.

203Precambrian

Three curving spiral arms created a body symmetry almost absent among living animals.

301Precambrian

Its quilted branches lay flat rather than rising from a stem.

302Precambrian

Dense stands of narrow tubes formed one of the earliest large colonial scenes.

303Precambrian

Bead-like discs arranged in strings may record an early macroscopic colony.

304Precambrian

Centimeter-wide ribbons curled into regular spirals among the earliest macroscopic fossils.

305Precambrian

Cell division and branching resemble living red algae and may record early sexual reproduction.

307Precambrian

Branching spherical microfossils may push the fungal record toward one billion years.

409Precambrian

Repeatedly branching cell filaments push green-plant history toward one billion years.

410Precambrian

Cell partitions and internal platelets were interpreted as very ancient red-algal evidence.

411Precambrian

A lobed multicellular thallus was proposed as an early red-algal body.

412Precambrian

Long carbonaceous ribbons resemble soft algae but lack diagnostic organs.

418Precambrian

Branching cellular filaments show complex photosynthetic life before abundant animals.

473Precambrian

Complex branching and septa make it a candidate early eukaryote or fungus.

474Precambrian

Cup-like bodies linked by filaments have been read as fungi or a microbial colony.

477Precambrian

Circular carbon films may represent a giant single-celled eukaryote traditionally called an alga.

478Precambrian

Sausage-shaped carbon films may be macroalgae or another early eukaryote.