Overturning the Ediacara biota: community structure of the oldest animal ecosystems

对南澳著名的埃迪卡拉生物群系列化石层的首次系统挖掘将导致对地球上最古老的多种宏观生命组合的综合研究。一旦记录中的生物成分和非生物成分被分离，埃迪卡拉纪化石层就可以被视为“快照”了。底栖海洋生物群落。这将使古生态学工具的使用，以确定这些前寒武纪化石的成员，如果任何动物群体，预示着寒武纪动物生命的爆炸。

The first systematic excavation of serial fossil beds of South Australia's famous Ediacara biota will lead to an integrated study of the oldest diverse macroscopic assemblages of life on Earth. Once the preservational and biological components of the record have been separated, Ediacaran fossil beds can be treated as 'snap-shots? of benthic marine communities. This will enable the use of palaeoecological tools to determine which if any of these Precambrian fossils were members of animal groups that heralded the Cambrian explosion of animal life.