ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ediacaran type preservation

Ediacaran type preservation is a fancy way of saying that scientists have found really old fossils that are very well preserved. These fossils come from a time when there were no animals with hard shells, like the ones we see today. Instead, there were squishy creatures that looked like flowers or worms, and they lived at the bottom of the sea.

These creatures were so squishy that they didn't leave any bones or hard parts behind when they died. But, lucky for us, they did get preserved in a special way! When these creatures died, they sunk to the bottom of the sea and got covered in sediment (mud and sand). This sediment squished around them and made little molds of their bodies, almost like when you press your hand into clay and it makes a hand shape.

Over time, these molds got filled with minerals, like cement, that hardened and turned into rock. Eventually, the sediment around the fossil eroded away, leaving behind the hardened mold filled with minerals. This is how scientists can study these creatures today, even though they lived millions of years ago!

So, in summary, Ediacaran type preservation is when very old fossils of strange, squishy creatures are found in rocks. These fossils are so well preserved because the creatures were covered in sediment and their shapes were filled with minerals that turned to rock over time.