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"Paleontology Cambrian."
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In the blink of an eye : how vision kick-started the big bang of evolution
The Cambrian explosion is the 'big bang' of evolution - a period of less than five million years during which life on Earth rapidly developed both armaments and defences. Animals suddenly became both hunters and the hunted, and the number of animal groups with hard body parts mushroomed from three to 38. But why did the explosion happen when it did? Ground-breaking and accessible, Andrew Parker's In the Blink of an Eye unravels the evidence demonstrating that this was the period when the eye evolved, leading to an evolutionary scramble for survival.
Book
The origin of animal body plans
Recent fossil finds and new insight into animal development are providing fresh clues to the riddle of the explosion of diversified animals in the Early Cambrian era, beginning nearly 530 million years ago. The findings are helping biologists clarify the evolutionary relationships between different species and why certain body plans succeeded while others did not.
Journal Article
The King Trilobite
\"Fossils of a giant long-extinct group of sea creatures called trilobites--the largest known--have been found in South Australia and were named in honor of the giant dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.\" (McClatchy Newspapers) Read more about the Redlichia rex trilobite fossil.
Newspaper Article
Shrimp-Like Fossil Has Oldest Cardiovascular System Ever Found
\"Scientists have uncovered the oldest cardiovascular system they've ever found in a fossil, in the form of a shrimp-like animal that once roamed the turbulent ancient seas.\" (Los Angeles Times) Read more about the Fuxianhuia protensa fossil.
Newspaper Article
The Biological Big Bang
\"Most modern animal groups first appeared between 520 and 540 million years ago during the 'Cambrian explosion,' the greatest burst of evolution in Earth's history.\" (McClatchy Newspapers) Read about this period of animal evolution.
Newspaper Article
Ancient steroids establish the Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia as one of the earliest animals
The first complex organisms emerged during the Ediacaran period, around 600 million years ago. The taxonomic affiliation of many of these organisms has been difficult to discern. Fossils of Dickinsonia , bilaterally symmetrical oval organisms, have been particularly difficult to classify. Bobrovskiy et al. conducted an analysis using lipid biomarkers obtained from Dickinsonia fossils and found that the fossils contained almost exclusively cholesteroids, a marker found only in animals (see the Perspective by Summons and Erwin). Thus, Dickinsonia were basal animals. This supports the idea that the Ediacaran biota may have been a precursor to the explosion of animal forms later observed in the Cambrian, about 500 million years ago. Science , this issue p. 1246 ; see also p. 1198 Lipid biomarkers extracted from organically preserved Ediacaran macrofossils unambiguously clarify their phylogeny. The enigmatic Ediacara biota (571 million to 541 million years ago) represents the first macroscopic complex organisms in the geological record and may hold the key to our understanding of the origin of animals. Ediacaran macrofossils are as “strange as life on another planet” and have evaded taxonomic classification, with interpretations ranging from marine animals or giant single-celled protists to terrestrial lichens. Here, we show that lipid biomarkers extracted from organically preserved Ediacaran macrofossils unambiguously clarify their phylogeny. Dickinsonia and its relatives solely produced cholesteroids, a hallmark of animals. Our results make these iconic members of the Ediacara biota the oldest confirmed macroscopic animals in the rock record, indicating that the appearance of the Ediacara biota was indeed a prelude to the Cambrian explosion of animal life.
Journal Article