Ediacara Biota

Melvyn Bragg and guests Martin Brasier, Richard Corfield and Rachel Wood discuss the Ediacara Biota, the Precambrian life forms which vanished 542 million years ago, and whose discovery proved Darwin right in a way he never imagined. Darwin was convinced that there must have been life before the Cambrian era, but he didn’t think it was possible for fossils like the Ediacara to have been preserved. These sea-bed organisms were first unearthed in the 19th century, but were only recognised as Precambrian in the mid-20th century. This was an astonishing discovery. Ever since, scientists have been working to determine its significance. Were the Ediacara the earliest forms of animal life? Or were they a Darwinian dead end? Either way, it is argued, they reveal some of the secrets of the workings of evolution.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Martin Brasier No other episodes
  Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford
• Richard Corfield 10 episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Earth Sciences at the Open University
• Rachel Wood No other episodes
  Lecturer in Carbonate Geoscience at the University of Edinburgh

Related episodes

• The Cambrian Period
  
  17 Feb, 2005 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• The Origins of Life
  
  23 Sep, 2004 570 Biology
• The Late Devonian Extinction
  
  11 Mar, 2021 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• Corals
  
  28 Oct, 2021 570 Biology
• The Fish-Tetrapod Transition
  
  20 Oct, 2022 570 Biology
• The Evolution of Crocodiles
  
  16 Sep, 2021 590 Animals (Zoology)
• Plankton
  
  5 Oct, 2023 570 Biology
• Fossils
  
  22 Mar, 2001 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• The Permian-Triassic Boundary
  
  28 Jun, 2007 550 Earth sciences and geology
• Mammals
  
  13 Oct, 2005 590 Animals (Zoology)
• Doggerland
  
  27 Jun, 2019 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Cell
  
  13 Sep, 2012 570 Biology
• Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle
  
  6 Jan, 2009 570 Biology
• Catastrophism
  
  30 Jan, 2014 550 Earth sciences and geology
• The Neanderthals
  
  17 Jun, 2010 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• Darwin: On the Origins of Charles Darwin
  
  5 Jan, 2009 570 Biology
• Alfred Russel Wallace
  
  21 Mar, 2013 570 Biology
• Human Evolution
  
  16 Feb, 2006 560 Fossils and prehistoric life
• Darwin: On the Origin of Species
  
  7 Jan, 2009 570 Biology
• Homo erectus
  
  14 Apr, 2022 570 Biology

---

Programme ID: b00lh2s3

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lh2s3

Auto-category: 560 (Paleontology)