The Neoproterozoic era (circa 1000-542 million years ago) represents a defining transitional interval in Earth history that witnessed the most dramatic climatic swings ever experienced, accompanied by significant changes to our planet’s atmospheric and oceanic compositions, and the dawn of animal life on Earth. Despite its importance, the late Neoproterozoic still receives scant attention from stratigraphers because of the difficulties in global correlation in the current absence of useful fossil markers.
In 2004, the Terminal Proterozoic Subcommission recognised recent advances made in late Neoproterozoic geology by formalising a new period, the Ediacaran Period (and System). The Ediacaran Period (ca. 632-542 Ma) represents the time from the end of global Marinoan glaciation to the first appearance worldwide of somewhat complicated trace fossils (Trichophycus pedum) that appear in places together with the last remnants of the soft-bodied Ediacara fauna. A basal Ediacaran GSSP has been established at Enorama Creek, South Australia, defined at the base of “cap dolostones” that overlie Marinoan glacial deposits of the Elatina Formation (e.g., Knoll et al., 2004a, Knoll et al., 2004b; see also Whitfield, 2004). At the end of 2004, a new subcommission was set up and named the Subcommission on Ediacaran Stratigraphy. This subcommission was renamed in 2006 as the Subcommission on Neoproterozoic Stratigraphy.

The Subcommission on Neoproterozoic Stratigraphy is the primary body for facilitation of international communication and scientific cooperation in Ediacaran and Neoproterozoic stratigraphy, defined in the broad sense of multidisciplinary activities directed towards better understanding of the evolution of the Earth during the Ediacaran Period and more generally during the Neoproterozoic. Its first priority is the unambiguous definition, by means of agreed GSSP’s, of a hierarchy of chronostratigraphic units that provide the framework for global correlation.

Subcommission's Annual Report for 2006