Ediacaran

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/ediacaran

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?Ediacaran Period
2. What is the geological placement?Last period of the Neoproterozoic Era and the Precambrian Supereon
3. What was the Ediacaran period?The Ediacaran period was a time from about 635 to 538.8 million years ago when the first complex, multicellular animals appeared on Earth. It followed the very cold "Snowball Earth" glaciations and marked a shift from tiny microbes to larger life forms.
4. Why is the Ediacaran period important?It is important because it was the first time many different kinds of complex animals lived together. This helped set the stage for the amazing variety of life that came later.

Metazoan: An informal term for a multicellular animal, often used when discussing early animal evolution.
Phylum: A major taxonomic rank below Kingdom and above Class, representing a fundamental body plan.
Bilateral Symmetry: A body plan where an organism can be divided into two mirror-image halves along a central axis.
Type Section: A specific geological locality designated as the reference standard for a particular geological period or formation.