Recolonisation strategies of early animals in the Avalon (Ediacaran 574 – 560 Ma)

The first geographically widespread metazoans are found in the Avalon assemblage (Ediacaran; 574 – 560 Ma). These early animals were regularly disturbed by sedimentation events such as ash flows and turbidites, leading to an apparent “resetting” of communities. However, it is not clear how biological legacies – remains or survivors of disturbance events – influenced community ecology in the Avalon. Here, we use spatial point process analysis on 19 Avalon palaeocommunities to test whether two forms of biological legacy (fragmentary remains of Fractofusus and surviving frondomorphs) impacted the recolonisation dynamics of Avalon palaeocommunities. We found that densities of Fractofusus were increased around the Fractofusus fragments, suggesting that they helped to recolonise the post-disturbance substrate, potentially contributing to the Fractofusus dominance found in 8 of the 19 palaeocommunities. However, we found no such effects for survivor fronds. Our results suggest that the evoluti..., , # Data from: Recolonisation strategies of early animals in the Avalon (Ediacaran 574 – 560 Ma)

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.66t1g1kcx](10.5061/dryad.66t1g1kcx)

## Description of the data and file structure

br5_fractofusus_fragments_coords.xlsx

Coordinate data for complete Fractofusus andersoni and fragments on the BR5 surface in the mistaken point to recreate results from the associated manuscript in Paleobiology

## Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

* Code to reproduce this research is available at: [https://github.com/nis38/NPS_dex](https://github.com/nis38/NPS_dex) and [https://github.com/nis38/Secondary_Succession](https://github.com/nis38/Secondary_Succession)

Data was derived from the following source:

* Photomap of Brasier Surface at MPER.,