Ediacaran Extinction and Cambrian Explosion
Open accessAbstract
The Ediacaran-Cambrian (E-C) transition marks the most important geobiological revolution of the past billion years, including the Earth's first crisis of macroscopic eukaryotic life, and its most spectacular evolutionary diversification. Here, we describe competing models for late Ediacaran extinction, summarize evidence for these models, and outline key questions which will drive research on this interval. We argue that the paleontological data suggest two pulses of extinction - one at the White Sea-Nama transition, which ushers in a recognizably metazoan fauna (the 'Wormworld'), and a second pulse at the E-C boundary itself. We argue that this latest Ediacaran fauna has more in common with the Cambrian than the earlier Ediacaran, and thus may represent the earliest phase of the Cambrian Explosion.
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The biotic transition broadly coincides with the BACE, which marks a global perturbation of the marine carbon cycle, but the relationship of this to any potential extinction mechanism, such as a rise in shallow marine anoxia, is not established.
“This biotic transition broadly coincides with the BACE, which marks a global perturbation of the marine carbon cycle [e.g., see (30, 33–35)], but the relationship of this to any potential extinction mechanism, such as a rise in shallow marine anoxia, is not established.”
From Sea level controls on Ediacaran-Cambrian animal radiations (2024) · cites this paper as [33]
Ediacaran body fossils are limited to the interval between ~570 Ma and the base of the Cambrian roughly 30 million years later.
“Despite the extraordinary array of early animals and lifestyles on display, the Ediacaran body fossils are limited to the interval between ∼570 Ma and the base of the Cambrian roughly 30 million years later (reviewed in Xiao and Laflamme, 2009; Droser et al., 2017; Darroch et al., 2018).”
From Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview (2021) · cites this paper as Darroch et al., 2018
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References 63 · Cited by 236
- Authors
- Darroch, S. A. F., Smith, E. F., Laflamme, M., & Erwin, D. H.
- Affiliations
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- Corresponding author
- Darroch, Simon A.F.
- Venue
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-09
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 653-663
- ISSN
- 0169-5347 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2884527531
- Cited by
- 236
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 3.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Geographic (9968-16)
- Smithsonian Institution Peter Buck Fellowship Program
- NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN 435402)
- National Astrobiology Institute (NNA13AA90A)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Keywords
- Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, Cambrian explosion, early animal evolution, evolutionary diversification, extinction pulses, Ediacaran biota
- MeSH terms
- Biological Evolution, Fossils, Paleontology, Earth, Planet, Extinction, Biological
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