This Chapter deals with the records of all of the Proterozoic fossil finds which are not included among the prokaryotic or protistan fossils dealt with in Chapter 5. In general, therefore, Chapter 7 deals with the earliest fossil records of higher organisms on earth. However, where systematic assignment is subject to debate there is unavoidable overlap with the prokaryotes and protists.

In historical perspective, publications describing presumed Precambrian megafossils of various kinds go back more than 100 years. Reports of carbonaceous films appeared as early as 1854 (Eichwald 1854). “Trace fossil” descriptions date from 1866 (Dawson 1866), and “body fossils” from 1872 (Billings 1872a, b). Related to the now-famous Ediacaran faunas, the first unequivocal megafossil to be described was that of Rangea schneiderhöhni reported by G. Gürich in 1930 from rocks in southwest Africa. Since these early reports, hundreds of widely, if not universally accepted Proterozoic megafossils have been described from around the world. This record of Proterozoic megafossil remains is therefore not without its share of problems which are similar to those associated with the phylogenetically lower organisms described in Chapter 5. These problems include decisions regarding biogenicity and fossil syngenicity, as well as doubts about geologic age. There are disparate taxonomic judgments, including the differing environmental and/or evolutionary interpretations such judgments may engender. In some instances the reasoning may be circular.