Ediacara biota

Imagine you are playing with your play-doh set and you make some different shapes like a star or a circle or a creature. Now, a long time ago, before even your grandparents were born, there was a time when Earth was very different from what it is like now. At that time, there was an ancient group of creatures on Earth called Ediacara biota.

These creatures were kind of like the shapes you made with play-doh, but they were alive! They were some of the first living things on Earth that looked really different from what we are used to seeing today. They lived in the sea, and some of them were flat like pancakes, others were round, and some even looked like they had big frilly bits on their sides.

These Ediacara biota creatures lived very different lives than we do now. They didn't have any teeth or eyes or even brains! They just ate and grew and reproduced. But they were still really important because they paved the way for all the living things that came after them.

Now, scientists study these ancient creatures to learn more about the history of life on Earth, and what they can teach us about how our planet has changed over time. So, just like you can play with your play-doh set and make all sorts of fun shapes, these scientists can look at the shapes of these creatures and learn all sorts of interesting things.