Between 620 and 550 million years ago (during the Vendian Period) relatively large, complex, soft-bodied multicellular animals appear in the fossil record for the first time. While found in several localities around the world, this particular group of animals is generally known as the Ediacaran fauna, after the site in Australia where they were first discovered.
The Ediacaran animals are puzzling in that there is little or no evidence of any skeletal hard parts i.e. they were soft-bodied organisms, and while some of them may have belonged to groups that survive today others don't seem to bear any relationship to animals we know. Although many of the Ediacaran organisms have been compared to modern-day jellyfish or worms, they have also been described as resembling a mattress, with tough outer walls around fluid-filled internal cavities - rather like a sponge.
As a group, Ediacaran animals had a flat, quilted appearance and many showed radial symmetry. They ranged in size form 1cm to >1m, and have been classified into three main groups on the basis of their shape: discoidal, frond-like, or ovate-elongate. The large variety of Ediacaran animals is significant, as it suggests there must have been a lengthy period of evolution prior to their first appearance in the fossil record.
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