Diversity in early animal communities of the Ediacaran, Avalon assemblage

Alpha diversity in the predominantly Newfoundland Avalon assemblage is linked to community type and declines with increasing vertical segregation, despite compositional differences across 22 surfaces.

• Why it matters: The Avalon assemblage offers near-census snapshots, but it was unclear whether alpha diversity varied by surface due to sampling, abiotic setting, stratigraphy, or biotic assembly.
• What they did: The study analyzed 11,342 specimens from 22 surfaces and tested abiotic and biotic correlates using taxon-area curves plus Shannon and Simpson diversity across sampling completeness and taxonomic treatments.
• The result: Richness was well captured on 12 of 22 surfaces, Shannon and Simpson stayed consistent across completeness and treatments, diversity showed no clear locality or stratigraphic associations, and it differed among community types while declining with vertical segregation.

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