What period of the Palaeozoic era is the Cambrian?
Q: What period of the Palaeozoic era is the Cambrian?
A: The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Palaeozoic era.
Q: How long did it last?
A: It lasted from 541 million years ago to 485.4 million years ago.
Q: What preceded and followed the Cambrian period?
A: Before it came the Ediacaran, and after it the Ordovician.
Q: Why do we have a better understanding of Cambrian animals than some later periods?
A: We have a better understanding of Cambrian animals because places have been found where soft parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells.
Q: What was life like before and during the Cambrian period?
A: Before the Cambrian, life was mostly small and simple, but during this period complex organisms (metazoa) evolved and many different kinds of life appeared relatively rapidly in what is known as 'the Cambrian explosion'.
Q: Where did most of this new life appear?
A: Most of this new life appeared in oceans with little on land except for a layer of microbes.
Q: What other conditions existed at that time which may have contributed to this rapid diversification? A: There were shallow seas near several continents due to Pannotia breaking into smaller pieces, warm seas with no ice at either pole which may have contributed to this rapid diversification during the beginning of the Cambrian period.
