When did the first animals appear in the fossil record?

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Group of fallow deer (Dama dama) stags with large, palmate antlers standing alert in a green summer field. — Animal The fallow deer (*Dama dama*) has been introduced in many areas ever since the Neolithic Period.

The first animals, known as metazoans, appeared in the fossil record during the Ediacaran Period, which spanned approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago. These early organisms, collectively referred to as the Ediacara fauna, were soft-bodied, multicellular creatures that left impressions in shallow-water sediments.123

While the Ediacaran Period provides the most widely recognized evidence, the timeline of animal origins is a subject of ongoing scientific research. Some studies have reported evidence of invertebrate metazoans in sediments dating back more than 760 million years. Furthermore, research into rocks from the Tonian and Cryogenian periods suggests that the first animals may have emerged even earlier, potentially between 800 million and 700 million years ago.14