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Concept

Ediacaran period

A circular fossil-like structure with radiating lines and a central spiderweb pattern, representing the Ediacaran period, a geological time marked by unique life forms.

The last geological period of the Precambrian, running from about 635 to 539 million years ago. Named after the Ediacara Hills in South Australia, where its fossils were first recognised, it preserves the earliest known complex multicellular life: soft-bodied disc and frond organisms whose relationship to later animal lineages remains contested. The common ancestor of vertebrates and cephalopods lived somewhere within or just before this window.

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