The Ediacaran Period is an interval of geological time ranging 635 to 541 million years ago. It was a time of immense geological and biological change, and records the transition from a planet largely dominated by microscopic organisms, to a Cambrian world swarming with animals.

The Ediacaran (/ˌiːdiˈækərən/; formerly Vendian) biota is a taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (c. 635–541 Mya). These were composed of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile, organisms.

The fossils preserved in the ancient sea-floor at Ediacara record the first known multicellular animal life on Earth that predates the Cambrian. This diverse and exquisitely preserved community of ancient organisms represents a significant snapshot of our geological heritage.

The Ediacara impressions were derived from soft-bodied organisms similar to modern-day jellyfish, lichen, soft corals, sea anemones, sea pens, annelid worms, and seaweed, as well as some organisms unlike any that are known today.

The onset of the Ediacaran Period coincided with the rapid retreat of ice sheets and glaciers associated with the Marinoan (or Varanger-Marinoan) glaciation—which began near the end of the Cryogenian Period and ended approximately 635 million years ago—and declines in the carbon isotope composition of marine rocks.

Consequently, it has been suggested that Ediacaran macroorganisms preferentially inhabited oligotrophic environments and used bacteria as their main energy source, as either food or symbionts17,19,20,21.

The Proterozoic Eon is the most recent division of the Precambrian. During the Proterozoic Eon, modern plate tectonics became active, and the ancient cores of the continents moved over wide areas of the globe, accumulating smaller fragments of crust and sometimes colliding with other large landmasses.

Scientists have argued for decades over what may have caused this mass extinction, during what is called the “Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.” Some think that a steep decline in dissolved oxygen in the ocean was responsible.

But it wasn’t a shower of meteorites or the eruption of volcanoes that wiped the Ediacaran biota off the face of the planet. According to recent research, it was the emergence of new life forms – animals – and the changes they brought about to the environment that triggered the extinction.

542 million years ago

Among all animals, ants outweigh us in biomass — putting billions and billions of tons up against humans’ fewer than 500 million. And while they’re both tiny and lacking a backbone, krill are the champs among animals worldwide, in terms of numbers, with a population estimated at 500 trillion.

The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever.

India

Lions once lived in Europe too, but they have long since become extinct here. Today, lions only exist in Africa south of the Sahara desert and in Gir National Park in India.

All lions face high mortality as cubs, for a variety of reasons, including injuries, lack of food, illness and being killed by adult lions — more on that later. A majority of male lions die during this time, said Gabriele Cozzi, a researcher at Zurich University who wasn’t involved in the film.