161Precambrian
Dickinsonia
Dickinsonia costata
Its flat oval body moved across microbial mats like a rhythmically quilted cushion, leaving feeding traces behind.
EXTINCT ATLAS WIKIEXTINCT LIFE ARCHIVEBack to archivePeriod · 635–538.8 million years ago
Ediacaran Animals & Early Life
Meet Dickinsonia, Charnia and other organisms from the seafloors before the Cambrian explosion.
Life and the fossil record
Impressions and traces reveal body shapes, movement and interactions with the seafloor. Some Ediacaran organisms are recognizable as animals, while the relationships of others remain debated. The Ediacaran is the final period of the Proterozoic, not a separate eon.
162Precambrian
Spriggina
Spriggina floundersi
A horseshoe-shaped front led a body of offset leaflike units, giving it the appearance of a flattened soft worm.
163Precambrian
Charnia
Charnia masoni
A featherlike body of repeating branches was anchored by a disc in deep water, yet it had neither chlorophyll nor a mouth.
164Precambrian
Kimberella
Kimberella quadrata
Its low oval body crawled across microbial mats while a front feeding structure left fan-shaped sets of scratches.
201Precambrian
Ernietta
Ernietta plateauensis
Rows of quilted sacks lived half-buried in sand, forming one of the Ediacaran seafloor's strangest communities.
202Precambrian
Rangea
Rangea schneiderhoehni
Six branching vanes surrounded a central axis, making the organism resemble a soft pine cone standing on the seabed.
203Precambrian
Tribrachidium
Tribrachidium heraldicum
Three curving spiral arms created a body symmetry almost absent among living animals.
301Precambrian
Fractofusus
Fractofusus misrai
Its quilted branches lay flat rather than rising from a stem.
302Precambrian
Funisia
Funisia dorothea
Dense stands of narrow tubes formed one of the earliest large colonial scenes.
412Precambrian
Vendotaenia
Vendotaenia antiqua
Long carbonaceous ribbons resemble soft algae but lack diagnostic organs.
418Precambrian
Doushantuophyton
Doushantuophyton cometa
Branching cellular filaments show complex photosynthetic life before abundant animals.
477Precambrian
Chuaria
Chuaria circularis
Circular carbon films may represent a giant single-celled eukaryote traditionally called an alga.