Ediacaran biota

How? Last episode, we spent time in the quiet.

The Ediacaran, pancakes and ferns and fidget spinners pressed into ancient stone.

It was experimenting with shape, with size, with cells taking on different jobs.

It was the first rough draft.

But geologically, it's nothing.

It's a hiccup.

If the entire history of Earth were squeezed into a 24-hour day, the Ediacaran animals we met last episode would start showing up just before 9 p.m.

The Cambrian begins at about 9.09, and over roughly the next 6 to 10 minutes, most of the major body plans that would ever exist gets invented.