Neoproterozoic Era

 The next Era is the Neoproterozoic Era, which lasted from 1,000 to 541 million years ago. It is divided into 3 Periods, which we will probably take a closer look at, given the chance.

This article says the most severe glaciation occurred in the middle of this era, when ice sheets reached the equator and formed a ‘snowball earth’. I seem to remember reading somewhere that may not have been a hard freeze at the equator, it may have been slushy in the lowest latitudes.

This severe glaciation may have occurred because of the supercontinent Rodinia, which straddled the equator. It broke up into a number of individual land masses during the first period of this era. Somehow, the low-latitude position of most continent pieces caused the large-scale glacial events. We’ll see if this is explained when we look at the individual periods.

Fossils of the earliest complex multicellular lifeforms have been found dating from the last period of this era. These organisms include the oldest definitive animals in the fossil record.

Originally, the fossil remains of multicellular life such as trilobites and archeocyathid sponges were used to designate the beginning of Cambrian Period. Early in the 20th century, other complex fauna started to be found that pre-dated these fossils, so there were multicellular lifeforms during the Neoproterozoic Era, possibly arising in the last period, after the world-dominating glaciers subsided. Some of these early creatures may or may not be ancestors of modern animals. Even the scientists don’t agree on that or on which ancient lifeform may have produced which modern animal.

Another milestone attributed to this era is that this is when the most continental crust was formed.

Well, I managed to boil that entire article down to less than 300 words. I could have included more, but it would have come out sounding more like a thesis, rather than a blog.

Here’s what I look forward to finding out in looking up the 3 periods for the era:

* Anything that happened in the first period, because this article seemed to have glossed right over those years.

* How Rodinia’s ‘children’ all sitting near the equator created such massive glaciers when Robinia itself, sitting on the equator, did not.

* What finally caused the glaciers to retreat? I’ve heard it might have been volcanoes in Siberia (which wasn’t sitting anywhere near where it is today).

* More information about these lifeforms and their supposed modern descendents.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoproterozoic#:~:text=The%20Neoproterozoic%20Era%20is%20the,%2C%20Cryogenian%2C%20and%20Ediacaran%20Periods.