Causes and consequences of end-Ediacaran extinction – an update

Since the 1980s, the existence of one or more extinction events in the late Ediacaran has been the subject of debate.Discussion surrounding these events has intensified in the last decade, in concert with efforts to understand drivers of global change over the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition and the appearance of the more modern-looking Phanerozoic biosphere.In this paper we review the history of thought and work surrounding late Ediacaran extinctions, with a particular focus on the last 5 years of paleontological, geochemical, and geochronological research.We consider the extent to which key questions have been answered, and pose new questions which will help to characterize drivers of environmental and biotic change.A key challenge for future work will be the calculation of extinction intensities that account for limited sampling, the duration of Ediacaran 'assemblage' zones, and the preponderance of taxa restricted to a single 'assemblage'; without these data, the extent to which Ediacaran bioevents represent genuine mass extinctions comparable to the 'Big 5' extinctions of the Phanerozoic remains to be rigorously tested.Lastly, we propose a revised model for drivers of late Ediacaran extinction pulses that builds off recent data and growing consensus within the field.This model is speculative, but does frame testable hypotheses that can be targeted in the next decade of work. Impact statementThe majority of extinction-based paleontological research over the last four decades has focused on the 'big 5' mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic.In parallel, however, geologists and paleontologists working in the Precambrian have mulled the existence of one or more pulses of extinction (and potentially 'mass extinction') in the latest Neoproterozoic (~574-539 million years ago) shortly before the onset of the Cambrian.These episodes of global biotic turnover removed the mysterious Ediacara biota, as well as groups of more recognizable animal fossils.In this review, we summarize the history of ideas and research surrounding these events, as well as recent work in a range of fields that is attempting to identify the driversboth biotic and abiotic of extinction.We outline four key questions which, we argue, will help us to compare the causes and consequences of Ediacaran extinction alongside the Phanerozoic 'Big 5', and which will help us decide whether the 'Big 5' might eventually become the 'Big 6' (or the 'Big 7', if the current biodiversity crisis is considered).Finally, we propose a model for drivers of late Ediacaran extinction that builds off recent data.This model is speculative, but frames testable hypotheses that will help determine the role these events may have played in the Ediacaran-Cambrian emergence of the modern-looking biosphere, and thus the extent to which Ediacaran extinction and the Cambrian explosion may be linked.

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