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

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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.

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Etymology

Origin of Ediacaran

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

Example Sentences

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

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

From Science Magazine

His mother, University of California, Riverside, paleoecologist Mary Droser, was searching for fossilized remnants of animals from the Ediacaran era, stretching from approximately 635 million years ago to 541 million years ago, during which the first complex animals evolved.

From Science Magazine

Hughes said the team was excited to find evidence of what scientists had long predicted; that ecdysozoans existed in the Ediacaran Period.

From Science Daily

"We know they didn't just appear out of nowhere, and so the ancestors of all ecdysozoans must have been present during the preceding Ediacaran period."

From Science Daily