Earth’s magnetic field was once 30 times weaker than it is today. This change may have played a pivotal role in the blossoming of complex life, new research found.

A new study of ancient fossil trails pushes the origins of complex life deeper into Earth’s history, before the Cambrian Period began.

But at the end of the Ediacaran and into the early Cambrian, the trails become more sophisticated: creatures carved tighter turns and ploughed closely spaced, parallel lines through the sediments.

As Ediacaran organisms became more specialized, some species couldn’t keep up with their neighbors, the team reported on May 17 in the journal PLoS Biology.

Ediacaran fossils at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. Emily Mitchell "While taller organisms would have been in faster-flowing water, the lack of tiering within these communities shows that their ...

Paleontologists have revealed the fossilized remains of a curious creature that is not only one of Earth's oldest animals, but may even be the first to have ever been mobile. Dubbed Quaestio ...

The Ediacaran Period is one of the most important in the development of life, as organisms made the jump from simple structures such as microbial mats to animals with bodies, heads, tails and guts.

The rangeomorphs were part of the so-called Ediacaran biota that lived between 540 and 575 million years ago. There’s nothing like them now. They died off completely during the Cambrian ...

Earth’s magnetic field was once 30 times weaker than it is today. This change may have played a pivotal role in the blossoming of complex life, new research found.