The burst of animal diversification spanning the transition from the Ediacaran to the Cambrian periods stands as one of the most consequential turning points in Earth’s history.

Yet the fossil record offers only a fragmented view of that transformation: Ediacaran communities bear little resemblance to those of the Cambrian, leaving the pivotal moment when major animal groups emerged frustratingly out of reach.

“Our discovery closes a major gap in the earliest phases of animal diversification,” said Dr. Gaorong Li, a researcher at Oxford University.

“For the first time, we demonstrate that many complex animals, normally only found in the Cambrian, were present in the Ediacaran period, meaning that they evolved much earlier than previously demonstrated by fossil evidence.”