Data from: Transgression-regression cycles drive correlations in Ediacaran-Cambrian rock and fossil records

Strata of the Ediacaran Period (635-538.8 Ma) yield the oldest known
fossils of complex, macroscopic organisms in the geologic record. These
“Ediacaran-type” macrofossils (known as the Ediacaran biota) first appear
in mid-Ediacaran strata, experience an apparent decline through the
terminal Ediacaran, and directly precede the Cambrian (538.8-485.4 Ma)
radiation of animals. Existing hypotheses for the origin and demise of the
Ediacaran biota include: changing oceanic redox states, biotic replacement
by succeeding Cambrian-type fauna, and mass extinction driven by
environmental change. Few studies frame trends in Ediacaran and Cambrian
macroevolution from the perspective of the sedimentary rock record,
despite well-documented Phanerozoic covariation of macroevolutionary
patterns and sedimentary rock quantity. Here we present a quantitative
analysis of North American Ediacaran–Cambrian rock and fossil records from
Macrostrat and the Paleobiology Database. Marine sedimentary rock quantity
increases nearly monotonically and by over a factor of five from the
latest Ediacaran to the late Cambrian. Ediacaran–Cambrian fossil
quantities exhibit a comparable trajectory and have strong (rs >
0.8) positive correlations with marine sedimentary area and volume flux at
multiple temporal resolutions. Even so, Ediacaran fossil quantities are
dramatically reduced in comparison to the Cambrian when normalized by the
quantity of preserved marine rock. Although aspects of these results are
consistent with the expectations of a simple fossil-preservation induced
sampling bias, together they suggest that transgression-regression and a
large expansion of marine shelf environments coincided with the
diversification of animals during a dramatic transition that is starkly
evident in both the sedimentary rock and fossil records.