Ediacaran period

The Ediacaran period, roughly 635 to 541 million years ago, is the final part of the Precambrian era. It marks a time when the earliest known large, soft-bodied multicellular organisms appeared in Earth's oceans. These mysterious life forms include strange, quilted, or frilled shapes that differ from modern animals, representing some of the first complex life on Earth. This period set the stage for the Cambrian Explosion, when many diverse animal groups rapidly evolved. The Ediacaran is crucial for understanding how life transitioned from simple microbial communities to more complex, multicellular organisms.