History of Earth - Cambrian Period - (Paleozoic Era)

			CAMBRIAN
			THE CAMBRIAN PERIOD 542 to 488 Million Years Ago
			The Age of the "Cambrian Explosion" Earth's Sea Life Rapidly Mutates
Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. - Proverbs 23:33
Ediacaran						Ordovician
\|-------------\| Paleo-Geography
Pannotia splits up into masses that will become Laurentia and Gondwana Panthalassic Ocean forms with wide shallow seas Climate very warm with high oxygen content All land is barren, lifeless desert
Life
Animals radically diversify -- the "Cambrian Explosion" Every animal body type (phylum) but one appears Predators and herbivores appear Animal eyes, shells, spines, legs, claws, etc. appear First vertebrates appear (below right) Many strange "experimental" forms appear, but many die out in mass extinction at the end of the period
		Trilobites (left) primitive arthropods that first appeared in the Cambrian, crawled on Earth's seafloors for the next 300 million years. (Image: U. of Wisconsin)
				The Strange Creatures of the Cambrian Sea (Image: Conway Morris, Crucible of Creation)
			Myllokunmingia, (right), appeared in the Cambrian. It was one of the first vertebrates - backboned animals - the group to which humans belong. (Image: J. Sibbick, Science News)
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SOURCES: University of California Museum of Paleontology - Tour of Geologic Time Wikipedia - Geologic Time Scale Palaeos - Geological Time IInternational Commission on Stratigraphy By Corey Zak - CORZAK INTERACTIVE