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The Cambrian explosion (also known as Cambrian radiation [1] or Cambrian diversification) is an interval of time beginning approximately in the Cambrian period of the early Paleozoic, when a sudden radiation of complex life occurred and practically all major animal phyla started appearing in the fossil record.
This biota largely disappeared with the rapid increase in biodiversity known as the Cambrian explosion. Most of the currently existing body plans of animals first appeared in the fossil record of the Cambrian rather than the Ediacaran. For macroorganisms, the Cambrian biota appears to have almost completely replaced the organisms that dominated ...
The Cambrian explosion was a period of rapid multicellular growth. Most animal life during the Cambrian was aquatic. Trilobites were once assumed to be the dominant life form at that time, [58] but this has proven to be incorrect. Arthropods were by far the most dominant animals in the ocean, but trilobites were only a minor part of the total ...
Cambrian explosion, the large bio-diversification event that occurred during the Cambrian. Opabinia, a genus of bizarre stem-group arthropod distantly related to the radiodonts. Wiwaxia, a genus of possible mollusk that had copious numbers of carbonaceous scales, and lived alongside Anomalocaris. Paleobiota of the Burgess Shale
Most scientists agree that complex life likely formed during the Ediacaran Period some 600 million years ago—right on the cusp of the well-known Cambrian Explosion.
Previous land-based life would probably have required other chemicals to attenuate ultraviolet radiation. [42] 580–542 Ma Ediacaran biota, the first large, complex aquatic multicellular organisms. [64] 580–500 Ma Cambrian explosion: most modern animal phyla appear. [65] [66] 550–540 Ma
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Opabinia was one of the main reasons why Stephen Jay Gould in his book Wonderful Life considered that Early Cambrian life was much more diverse and "experimental" than any later set of animals, and that the Cambrian explosion was a truly dramatic event, possibly driven by unusual evolutionary mechanisms. [37]