The Ediacaran Period: a new addition to the geologic time scale
Open accessAbstract
The International Union of Geological Sciences has approved a new addition to the geologic time scale: the Ediacaran Period. The Ediacaran is the first Proterozoic period to be recognized on the basis of chronostratigraphic criteria and the first internationally ratified, chronostratigraphically defined period of any age to be introduced in more than a century. In accordance with procedures established by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the base of the Ediacaran Period is defined by a Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) placed at the base of the Nuccaleena Formation cap carbonate directly above glacial diamictites and associated facies at Enorama Creek in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. Its top is defined by the initial GSSP of the Cambrian Period. The new Ediacaran Period encompasses a distinctive interval of Earth history that is bounded both above and below by equally distinctive intervals. Both chemostratigraphic and biostratigraphic data indicate that the subdivision of the period into two or more series is feasible, and this should be a primary objective of continuing work by the Ediacaran Subcommission of the ICS.
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The genetic fossil record strongly supports the notion that the diversification of metazoans in general, and bilaterian metazoans in particular, occurred during the Ediacaran Period, 635-542 Myr ago.
“Here we have shown, using a variety of analyses and appropriately testing for biases that may have been introduced by the use of palaeontologically derived maxima, that the genetic fossil record strongly supports the notion that the diversification of metazoans in general, and bilaterian metazoans in particular, occurred during the Ediacaran Period, 635-542 Myr ago (Knoll et al. 2004, 2006).”
From The Ediacaran emergence of bilaterians: congruence between the genetic and the geological fossil records (2008) · cites this paper as Knoll et al. 2006
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- Authors
- Knoll, A. H., Walter, M. R., Narbonne, G. M., & Christie‐Blick, N.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Macquarie University (AU)
- Queen's University (CA)
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (US)
- Venue
- Lethaia
- Publisher
- Scandinavian University Press
- Published
- 2006-03
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-30
- ISSN
- 0024-1164 (ISSN-L)
- 1502-3931
- OpenAlex
- W2137519359
- Cited by
- 355
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 22.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nrs.harvard.edu
- Licence
- Locations
- Lethaia (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Columbia Academic Commons (Columbia University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Geological formations and processes
- Keywords
- geologic time scale, chronostratigraphy, GSSP, Flinders Ranges, Proterozoic, Cambrian, chemostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, International Commission on Stratigraphy
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