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Science 20 July 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5529, pp. 438 - 439
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062987
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Perspectives

EVOLUTION:
The Cambrian Explosion Exploded?

Richard Fortey

At the beginning of the Cambrian period, about 545 million years ago, almost all the main types of animals that are still dominant today suddenly emerge in the fossil record. But was there a Cambrian "explosion" that saw accelerated evolution, or was there an extended period of evolutionary genesis in the Precambrian that did not leave a trace in the fossil record? In his Perspective, Fortey discusses recent support for the second hypothesis, highlighting in particular the report by Siveter et al. on a crustacean-like fossil from the early Cambrian.

The author is in the Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, and Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. E-mail: raf{at}nhm.ac.uk

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF SOME BASAL EARLY CAMBRIAN TRILOBITES, THE BIOGEOGRAPHIC ORIGINS OF THE EUTRILOBITA, AND THE TIMING OF THE CAMBRIAN RADIATION.
(2002)
Journal of Paleontology 76, 692-708
Crustaceans and the ""Cambrian Explosion"".
G. E. Budd, N. J. Butterfield, S. Jensen, D. J. Siveter, D. Waloszek, M. Williams, and R. A. Fortey (2001)
Science 294, 2047a-2047
   Full Text »    PDF »
Geobiology: A Golden Opportunity and a Call to Action.
(2001)
Palaios 16, 533-534


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)