Ediacaran

The Ediacaran Period (ee-dee-ak-er-en) is a geological period in the Neoproterozoic that spanned 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period 635 mya, to the beginning of the Rimunian Period 538.8 mya. It marks the end of the Proterozoic and the beginning of the Phanerozoic. It is named after the Ediacara Cliffs of Galand.

The Ediacaran marks the first appearance of mass multicellular life following the end of the last Snowball Ratera glaciation event. The Ediacaran Biota is its own group of animals known as Vendobiota.

Chronology

## Geography

The Ediacaran is broken up to three main phases: the Early, Middle and Late Ediacaran. Each phase is characterized by a shift in the topography of the planet, notably the arrangement of continents.

### Early Ediacaran

The Early Ediacaran is characterized by the presence of two major oceans, the Aethurethox Ocean and Uyul Ocean. Almost every continent is in the southern hemisphere.

There are four main continents and one outlying continent during the Early Ediacaran (refer to image). The largest of the continents was the supercontinent Osithia (red), constituting the majority of landmass at the time. The next largest was the continent Udenia (pink). Adaria (yellow) was the smallest confirmed continent at the time, with the even smaller outlying island continent Terrane Asna (light blue) being the smallest and hardly observable on the map (it is just below the yellow continent of Adaria, still barely visible). The last continent was the continent Stroloyia (green), which was the only landmass in the northern hemisphere at the time, being close to the equator than the poles.

There are only two main oceans during the Early Ediacaran, however there are a few other bodies of water (refer to image). The largest ocean was the Aethurethox Ocean (red), which covered around 60 - 70% of the globe, consisting of most of the water on the planet. The other ocean was the Uyul Ocean (yellow) which covered mainly the southern part of the globe in between the continents of Stroloyia and Adaria, as well as including Terrane Asna. The Uyul Ocean would've made up around 15 - 20 % of the water on the globe. The rest of the 10 - 15% of water was seas and gulf. The largest sea was the Ares Sea (pink) which spanned between western Osithia, Udenia, and northern Adaria. Inbetween northwestern Osithia and Udenia was the Ilias Sea (blue). A large gulf referred to as the Phanios Sea (orange) existed in eastern Osithia. In southern Osithia there was the small Oyush Sea (white). Lastly the second largest non-ocean body of water was the Augis Sea (green) which spanned from eastern Osithia to western Stroloyia.

### Middle Ediacaran

The Middle Ediacaran is characterized by the movement of the continent Adaria, which began to move towards the equator from its original southernmost continent position during the Early Ediacaran.

Similar to the Early Ediacaran, there were four main continents and one smaller continent. At this point the small Terrane Asna had disappeared into the ocean. The largest of the continents was still the supercontinent of Osithia (red). The next biggest continent was Udenia (pink) which was rather central at the time, laying on the prime meridian. The smallest continent was Terrane Guadalana (light blue), which consists of most of modern costal Tora. The northernmost continent was still Stroloyia (green), which began moving northwards from its position during the Early Ediacaran. As stated earlier, the last continent was Adaria (yellow) which was still similar in size as it was in the Early Ediacaran, however it began migrating towards the equator from its original southern position.

There are three main oceans during the Middle Ediacaran. The largest of the oceans, the Aethurethox Ocean (red) covered around 50% or more of the globe. The second largest was the Uyul Ocean (yellow) which was the easternmost/westernmost ocean depending on where on the globe you are looking. The southernmost ocean was similar in size to the Uyul Ocean, the Ares Ocean (light green), which spanned from Adaria to Osithia. Both the Uyul and Ares Oceans consisted of around 40% of the water on Ratera.

There were several other bodies of water which consisted of the remaining 10% of the water on Ratera. The Azora Gulf (dark blue) of and the Nehon Sea (orange) were the only other bodies of water around Adaria. The Eiqor Gulf (dark green) was in northwestern Udenia. Northeastern Udenia consisted of two bodies of water, the southernmost was the Isica Sea (light blue), and the northernmost was the Otos Sea (pink), both of which seperated Udenia from Osithia. South of Terrane Guadalana was the Kisia Sea (white). South of Osithia was the Uwane Sea (purple) which covered mainly parts of modern southern Ontura. East of Osithia were two large gulfs, the Oyush Sea (maroon) was in the southeast and the Ibune Sea (blue) was in the northeast.

### Late Ediacaran

The last phase of the Ediacaran was the Late Ediacaran. It was during the Late Ediacaran that Adaria moved to the equator and the previous continent of Udenia collided with Osithia.

There are three main continents during the Late Ediacaran after Udenia collided with Osithia. The largest of the continents was the supercontinent Obenia (red) which formed after the collision of Udenia and Osithia. The second largest continent was the continent of Adaria (yellow) which after the Middle Ediacaran, was now situated along the equator, consisting mainly of the northern parts of the modern continent of Maria. The other of the three main continents was the northernmost continent of Stroloyia (green), which continued to move northwards as well as westwards. The fourth continent was the smallest continent in the southern hemisphere known as Astrin Terrane, which is hypothesized to be the reemergence of the past island continent of Terrane Asna (pink). However, it is hard to prove this theory as the existence of both Terrane Asna and Astrin Terrane are known solely from island and sea rocks in the modern Gamtis Ocean.

There are the three same main oceans as there were during the Middle Ediacaran. The Aethurethox Ocean (red) which was to the north and around 50% of the oceans at the time. The Uyul Ocean (yellow) which was the easternmost or westernmost ocean at the time and was around 25% of the oceans at the time. And finally, the Ares Ocean (green) which was the southernmost ocean, consisting of around 15% of the oceans at the time.

The remaining 10% or so of water on Ratera were smaller bodies of water. The Otos Sea (pink) still existed from its first appearance back during the Middle Ediacaran. Similarly, the Isica Sea (white) also still existed, but was no longer connected to the Otos Sea after Udenia collided with Osithia. To the south of Obenia was the Uwane Sea (blue), which also existed during the Middle Ediacaran. The Ibune Sea (purple) which existed during the Middle Ediacaran still existed, however was significantly smaller as the continent of Osithia changed after it collided with Udenia. Finally, the northern most continent of Stroloyia possessed a gulf, known as the Ukesh Sea (orange).