Community hydrodynamics created ecological opportunity in Ediacaran shallow marine ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: The "second wave" of Ediacaran evolution (∼558-548 Ma) was characterized by the appearance of macroscopic organisms in shallow marine settings, where they formed communities with high morphological and ecological diversity, including new and more complex modes of life. Based on analogy with modern marine ecosystems, these early shallow water communities could have substantially modified local hydrodynamic conditions and influenced resource availability, but we know very little about how they interacted with their fluid environment at larger spatial scales. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics to investigate the hydrodynamics of different shallow marine Ediacaran communities based on fossil surfaces from Russia and South Australia. Our results reveal considerable hydrodynamic variabili

SUBMITTER: Gutarra S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12619063 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature