The Mysterious Disappearance of Ancient Sea Creatures

What if the first mass extinction did not occur with an asteroid collision upon the Earth’s surface but, instead, was caused by Ediacaran biota, an ancient burrowing worm that is thought to have lived on the ocean floor around 580 million years ago.

Dr. Simon Darroch, a recent Peter Buck fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), has been particularly fascinated with the disappearance of the Ediacaran biota and believed that this species hold the key to understanding a lot about the evolution of complex life.

You can read more about Simon’s work to unravel the history of these ancient burrowing mystery worms in an article published by Smithsonian Science News here.