Abstract The Cambrian Explosion by nature is a three-phased explosion of animal body
plans alongside episodic biomineralization, pulsed change of generic diversity, body size …

The correlation between Neoproterozoic tectonics, paleoenvironment and early life are
crucial for understanding the evolution of the Earth's habitability. The Yangtze Block …

Abstract The Cambrian 'Explosion', located by many authors between 540 and 520 million
years ago (Ma), is considered to be an abrupt appearance in the fossil record of most animal …

Tunicates are an evolutionarily significant subphylum of marine chordates, with their
phylogenetic position as the sister-group to Vertebrata making them key to unraveling our …

Benthic marine macroalgae or seaweeds are key ecological players in oceans today and
have been since the Proterozoic. To date, however, morphological and evolutionary patterns …

Oceanic redox changes may be a key environmental trigger for the “Cambrian explosion”.
However, a hypothesized predominantly oxygenated early Cambrian ocean, inferred from …

Phylogenomics underpins a stable and mostly well-resolved hypothesis for the
interrelationships of extant arthropods. Exceptionally preserved fossils are integrated into …

The trace-fossil record provides a wealth of information to track the rise and early evolution
of animals. It comprises the activity of both hard-and soft-bodied organisms, is continuous …

The animal phyla and their associated body plans originate from a singular burst of
evolution occurring during the Cambrian period, over 500 million years ago. The phylum …

Accumulated records of organic microfossils span billions of years of Earth history. The
majority of this record consists of prokaryotes plus eukaryotes of a protistan grade, yet this …