The Cambrian period, often celebrated for the “Cambrian explosion”, marked a pivotal phase in the history of life when early arthropods emerged and rapidly diversified. These organisms not only ...

Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists are ...

New research proposes the Brain-First Hypothesis: the evolution of the brain drove animal diversification during the Cambrian ...

More than 500 million years ago, during what is known as the Cambrian period, the seas and oceans on Earth were filled with a ...

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This animation created for Evolution: "Great Transformations" depicts creatures whose fossils were found at the Burgess Shale. As alien as these creatures seem, they are also surprisingly familiar.

For decades, scientists have wondered what triggered the sudden "explosion" of complex animal life on Earth. This new hypothesis suggests that the answer isn't found in shells or legs, but in the ...