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An evidence-based exploration of deep history, evolutionary science, and the cosmos.

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paleontology

The Cambrian explosion

Between roughly 538 and 520 million years ago, nearly all major animal body plans appeared in the fossil record within an interval of geological time representing less than 3 percent of the history of animal life—a diversification known as the Cambrian explosion.

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Extraordinary fossil deposits called Lagerstätten, including the Burgess Shale in Canada and the Chengjiang biota in China, preserve soft tissues as well as hard parts, revealing an astonishing menagerie of Cambrian animals including Anomalocaris, trilobites, Hallucigenia, and the earliest known chordates.
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Celebrated examples include Tiktaalik roseae (fish-to-tetrapod), the therapsid series (reptile-to-mammal), feathered dinosaurs and Archaeopteryx (dinosaur-to-bird), and Pakicetus through Basilosaurus (land-mammal-to-whale)—each discovered in the geological stratum predicted by evolutionary theory.
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The term 'Big Bang' is frequently misunderstood: it does not describe an explosion of matter through space, but rather the rapid expansion of space itself from an extremely hot, dense initial state approximately 13.8 billion years ago.
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