A 20 million-year Great Ediacaran Glaciation witnessed the rise of the earliest animals

Occurrence of Ediacara biota soon after the Gaskiers glaciation at ~ 580 Ma (million years ago) implies a possible glacial fuse of animal evolution1,2. To test this hypothesis, it is essential to resolve the spatial-temporal distributions of these Ediacaran glacial deposits. Here, we report the presence of globally synchronous ~ 570 − 560 Ma Shuram excursion, the largest negative carbonate carbon isotope excursion in Earth history3,4, stratigraphically below the Ediacaran Hankalchough glacial deposits in the Tarim Block, confirming a post-560 Ma glaciation. Considering the wholesale rotation of the solid Earth (crust and mantle) via an inertial interchange true polar wander process from ca. 590 − 580 to 560 Ma5–8, we observe that mapped Ediacaran glacial deposits were distributed on nearly all continents but were restricted roughly to mid-to-high latitudes. Thus, we propose a unique mid-to-high-latitude-dominated ‘Great Ediacaran Glaciation’ (GEG), lasting for more than 20 million years. The GEG bracketed the evolutionary window of Ediacara biota, implying an icehouse background for the rise of animals.