Ediacaran

British  

/ ˌiːdiːˈækərən /

adjective

1. of, denoting, or formed in the last 50 million years of the Neoproterozoic era, during which a new texturally and chemically distinctive carbonate layer appeared, indicating climatic change

---

noun

1. the Ediacaran period or rock system

Ediacaran Scientific  

/ ē′dē-ä′kə-rən /

1. Relating to a group of fossilized organisms that are the earliest known remains of multicellular life. They are soft-bodied marine life forms that date from between 560 and 545 million years ago, during the late Precambrian Eon.

---

Etymology

Origin of Ediacaran

C20: named after the Ediacara Hills in the Flinders mountain range in South Australia

Example Sentences

The group spent nearly a decade searching for diverse Ediacaran animal fossils.

From Science Daily • Apr. 6, 2026

Unlike most Ediacaran fossil sites, which preserve organisms as simple impressions in sandstone, the Jiangchuan Biota fossils are preserved as carbonaceous films.

From Science Daily • Apr. 6, 2026

Excavating a site in Australia that contains fossils of other Ediacaran organisms, they found 1-centimeter creatures they named Uncus dzaugisi.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 20, 2024

This week in Current Biology, researchers report tiny nematodelike fossils from the Ediacaran period, dating to about 15 million years before the Cambrian forms.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 20, 2024

Ediacaran animals, which lived 635-538 million years ago, were ocean dwellers; their remains preserved as cast-like impressions on the seabed that later hardened to rock.

From Science Daily • Nov. 18, 2024