Geological setting, environment and age of the Charnwood biota

At first glance, the total area of less than 40 km2 occupied by the ‘basement’ rocks of Charnwood Forest seems trivial when compared to the extent of Precambrian terrains elsewhere in the World. Such considerations are, however, outweighed by the significance of the Charnian Supergroup for British Precambrian geology, and globally, for the evidence it continues to contribute towards deciphering the nature of the Ediacara biota. There is in fact a lot of ‘geology’ here, because the Charnian rocks have been compressed into a rather tight anticlinal fold, the hinge of which plunges to the south-east. Thus if one traversed from the oldest Precambrian rocks, exposed in the northern core of the anticline, to the youngest on the flanks and ‘nose’ of the structure, a thickness of some 3.5 kilometres of strata would be passed through.