The third and final era of the Proterozoic eon, spanning 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago and closing the Proterozoic. It includes the Cryogenian's severe Snowball Earth glaciations and the Ediacaran's rise of the Ediacaran biota, the first widespread fossil evidence of complex multicellular animal life, setting the stage for the Cambrian explosion. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Start (Million Years Ago) End (Million Years Ago) Key EventThe earliest fossil evidence of metazoan radiation are found in the Ediacaran period, which included the namesaked Ediacaran biota. 1 Defining Event Connections
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Associated With
Source South China Craton (Wikipedia)
Source Torridon Group (Wikipedia)
Source Torridonian (Wikipedia)
Has Geologic Rank
In Discipline
Sources
1. Neoproterozoic (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
spanning from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago
Lead section
The earliest fossils of complex life are found in the Tonian period in the form of Otavia, a primitive sponge, and the earliest fossil evidence of metazoan radiation are found in the Ediacaran period, which included the namesaked Ediacaran biota as well as the oldest definitive cnidarians and bilaterians in the fossil record.
Lead paragraph
One of the most severe glaciation events known in the geologic record occurred during the Cryogenian period of the Neoproterozoic, when global ice sheets may have reached the equator and created a "Snowball Earth" lasting about 100 million years.
View the Source South China Craton (Wikipedia)
Associated With: South China Craton, Lead paragraphQuote, Associated With: South China Craton, Lead paragraph
The South China Block was formed by collision between the Yangtze Block and Cathaysia Block in the Neoproterozoic.
Torridon Group (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Torridon Group, Lead, age NeoproterozoicQuote, Associated With: Torridon Group, Lead, age Neoproterozoic
The Torridon Group is a series of Tonian (lower Neoproterozoic) arenaceous and argillaceous sedimentary rocks, which occur extensively in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.
Torridonian (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Torridonian, Lead, age NeoproterozoicQuote, Associated With: Torridonian, Lead, age Neoproterozoic
Torridonian is the informal name given to a sequence of Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks that outcrop in a strip along the northwestern coast of Scotland and some parts of the Inner Hebrides from the Isle of Mull in the southwest to Cape Wrath in the northeast.
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