Vendian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the late Precambrian geological period marked by the appearance of the earliest known complex multicellular organisms
2. Concerning the Vendian era characterized by significant geological and biological developments preceding the Cambrian period
3. Pertaining to the time frame in Earth's history when soft-bodied fauna emerged before widespread biomineralization occurred

Etymology: Geologists named this interval after the Vends, a Slavic people whose name derives from the Germanic "Wenden" and goes back to the Roman writer Tacitus's "Venedi." The label was applied to rock layers in Russia, so it preserves a regional ethnonym rather than describing the fossils or the biology of the period. The same span of time is also called the Ediacaran, a name taken from the Ediacara Hills in South Australia, where soft-bodied fossils from this interval were found. The two terms overlap, so the older Russian label and the Australian one are often used for the same rocks. The ethnic name and the biological description are unrelated in origin. The adjective's meaning was attached to a stratigraphic unit, so a reader who wants the fossil story will find it in the definition rather than in the word's history.

Synonyms: ediacaran, precambrian