The extreme cooling of the global climate around 700 million years ago ( the so-called Snowball Earth of the Cryogenian Period ) and the rapid evolution of primitive life during the subsequent Ediacaran and Cambrian periods are thought to have been triggered by the breaking up of Rodinia or to a slowing down of tectonic processes .
The extreme cooling of the global climate around 700 million years ago ( the so called Snowball Earth of the Cryogenian period ) and the rapid evolution of primitive life during the following Ediacaran and Cambrian periods may have been triggered by the breaking up of Rodinia .