Recreation of Ediacaran ‘death masks’ offers chemical explanation for fossils’ formation
Discovery offers insight into why so many soft-bodied organisms were preserved during that period
For the first time, researchers have convincingly recreated in the lab the conditions that preserved the enigmatic fossils of the Ediacaran biota – which represent the earliest-known examples of complex multicellular life.
Dating back to between 635–538.8 million years ago, the Ediacaran is often described as a period of evolutionary experimentation, one that occurred before the first appearances of the major branches in the tree of life that we would recognise today. Examples of life from this time include Dickinsonia – a mysterious blob with a quilted body – and the frond-like Charnia.