Cambrian L1

Oldest fossilized animal embryos and larvae: 150-200m from the Precambrian
Doushantuo Formation in Southwest China. 570mya.
Oldest fossil macroscopic fossil animals: Ediacaran Organisms, later replaced
by Cambrian organisms. 565-543mya.
Early Cambrian Era: 543-519 mya.
Ediacaran Organisms (are Precambrian/vendobiants)
Frond-like animals, disc like jellyfish.
Poorly preserved and so affinities to living or Cambrian animals are unclear.
Two Hypotheses:
1) They represent a group of animals unrelated to extant forms that died out
completely.
2) They represent stem groups of extant taxa such as Cnidarians.
Extinct at start of Cambrian era.
575-560 mya deposit from Newfoundland: preserves Ediacaran fossils in finer
sediment than previously known.
New fossils have quilted frondose and plumose structures, showing evidence of
semi-rigid skeleton.
These new discoveries suggest that Ediacaran animals represent single clade that
is probably unrelated to any living animals. (ie. Hypothesis 1)
Burrows and crawling tracks and feeding scratches provide further evidence for
metazoan life in late Precambrian.
Early Cambrian 543-519 mys
Characterised by layer of small shelly fossils (1mm-5mm).
Divided into two groups: Trilobitic, and sub-trilobitic.
1) Trilobites:
About 519 mya and were dominant group of marine arthropods for nearly 300
million years.
2) Subtrilobites
Burgess Shale
Best known Cambrian fossil deposit (lagerstatte).
Discovered in 1909 Charles
Exceptionally preserved with traces of soft anatomy, and most cases: 3D.
Burgess Shale: 505 mya.
Contains a variety of animal forms, some seem related to extant phyla such as
Cnidarians and Porifera.
One fossil with myotomes and a notochord is a clear chordate, Pikaia.
Majority of these fauna DONT fall into extant groups.
Other Cambrian Lagerstatten: Chengjiang in Southern China, and Sirius Passet in
North Greenland.
Chengjiang and Sirius Passet are slightly older than the Burgess Shale at 515 mya
and 517 mya respectively.

Chengjiang and Sirius Passet lagerstatten have considerably improved the

understanding of Cambrian animals.
All of these Cambrian Lagerstatten date to a 15 mya window of the Cambrian era.
Cambrian Explosion
Due to lack of older fossils? Or actually an explosion of diversity and numbers in
such a short period of time. It opposed Darwins evolution view as it wasnt gradual
change.
The Disparity Debate
Gould: These Cambrian fauna belong to phyla that have died out.
The disparity of the body plans of extant animals are less than that of the Cambrian.
Conway Morris: Cambrian fauna mostly represent branches off the lineages that
lead to extant fauna.
The disparity of the body plans of extant fauna are more than that of the Cambrian.
Similar environmental conditions to cause different animals to find same biological
solutions.
Disparity against time.
Ediacaran Animals: A group of mainly soft-bodied animals that lived at the end of
the Precambrian.
Disparity is: a number of morphological difference.