Abstract: Fossils of the Ediacara Biota preserve the earliest complex communities of macroscopic life, including the oldest known animals. Despite this importance, direct links between extant clades and well-known fossils from the Ediacaran have proved contentious. Although this biota is recognized at dozens of sites globally, more than 75% of total fossil occurrences come from just four sites. As such, many open questions remain regarding the biology, ecology, environmental context, temporal and spatial distribution of these early complex forms. This talk will highlight recent discoveries in South Australia and NW Canada that help address some of these uncertainties, providing new information on the evolution and diversification of complex life on Earth. 

Bio: Scott Evans is an Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History and a Professor in the Richard Gilder Graduate School. He received undergraduate degrees in Geology and Mathematics from the State University of New York at Geneseo, MS and PhD in paleobiology at the University of California, Riverside followed by appointments as a Buck fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and an Agouron Geobiology fellowship at Virginia Tech. Scott’s research covers exceptional fossil preservation, focused on the early record of animals in the Ediacaran to try and understand the biology, ecology and environmental context of these often enigmatic soft-bodied macrofauna.