The Ediacaran Period ˌ, named after the Ediacara Hills

Ediacara Hills

Ediacara Hills are a range of low hills in the northern part of the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, around 650 km north of Adelaide. The area has many old copper and silver mines from mining activity in the late 19th century...

 of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, is the last geological period of the Neoproterozoic

Neoproterozoic

The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1,000 to 542.0 ± 1.0 million years ago. The terminal Era of the formal Proterozoic Eon , it is further subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran Periods...

 Era and of the Proterozoic

Proterozoic

The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...

 Eon, immediately preceding the Cambrian

Cambrian

The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...

 Period, the first period of the Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 Era and of the Phanerozoic

Phanerozoic

The Phanerozoic Eon is the current eon in the geologic timescale, and the one during which abundant animal life has existed. It covers roughly 542 million years and goes back to the time when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared...

 Eon. Its status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences

International Union of Geological Sciences

The International Union of Geological Sciences is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology.-About:...

 (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years.

Although the Period takes its name from the Ediacara Hills where geologist Reg Sprigg

Reg Sprigg

Reginald Claude Sprigg, AO, HonDSc ANU, HonDSc Flinders, MSc Adelaide, FTSE was an Australian geologist and conservationist. At age 17 he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. In 1946, in the Ediacara Hills, South Australia he discovered the Ediacara biota, an...

 first discovered fossils of the eponymous biota

Ediacara biota

The Ediacara biota consisted of enigmatic tubular and frond-shaped, mostly sessile organisms which lived during the Ediacaran Period . Trace fossils of these organisms have been found worldwide, and represent the earliest known complex multicellular organisms.Simple multicellular organisms such as...

 in 1946, the type section

Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point

A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point, abbreviated GSSP, is an internationally agreed upon stratigraphic section which serves as the reference section for a particular boundary on the geologic time scale. The effort to define GSSPs is conducted by the International Commission on...

 is located in the bed of the Enorama Creek within Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges is the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts approximately north west of Adelaide. The discontinuous ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna...

 of South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, at 31°19′53.8"S 138°38′0.1"E.
The Ediacaran Period overlaps, but is shorter than the Vendian Period, a name that was earlier, in 1952, proposed by Russian geologist and paleontologist Boris Sokolov

Boris Sergeyevich Sokolov

Boris Sergeyevich Sokolov is a Russian geologist and paleontologist. Sokolov authored reference works on the stratigraphy of Eastern Europe, in particular the fossil coral records, and created the concept of Vendian period, currently recognized as largely overlapping, but not fully equivalent to...

.