Zoology Department Seminar: Patterns and potential processes in the evolution of Ediacaran morphological diversity

Our Departmental Seminars run weekly on Thursdays during term time. They cover recent research on a wide variety of topics from evolutionary genetics through behavioural ecology to ecology and natural history.  Please click here for a list of all of this term's seminars.

Everyone in Zoology is invited, and Part II undergraduate zoologists are particularly encouraged to attend. 

Speaker:  Dr Thomas J. Roper-Smith, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford

Abstract: 

The Ediacaran Biota, which appeared during the Ediacaran Period (~635–539 million years ago), comprises a diverse assemblage of soft-bodied macrofossils exhibiting frondose, modular, and lobate body plans. While the morphological diversity of this biota is well established, its origin and structure across space and time remain poorly understood, particularly in light of new material described in recent years. 

Here, we analyse a new, comprehensive dataset using a range of quantitative approaches to address this gap whilst explicitly accounting for biases arising from the heterogeneity of the Ediacaran fossil record. By contrasting changes in morphological and taxonomic diversity and testing potential explanatory hypotheses, we present a new perspective on the first great diversification of animal form, offering insight into the earliest chapters of complex animal evolution.