What Does The Cambrian Explosion Tell Us About Evolution

The rapid diversification of most major living phyla in the fossil record known as ‘The Cambrian Explosion’ presents a challenge – even to those with limited understanding of evolution. With the acknowledgement of this ‘explosion’ comes the issue of how it occurred. The problem arises because this sudden burst of change is inconsistent with the typical thought of evolution resulting from gradual change over time – otherwise known as uniformitarian theory (Erwin, 2011). This inconsistency begs the question: What does the Cambrian explosion tell us about evolution? Are we simply missing information, and the process is indeed gradual – or did something unusual and fairly rapid happen in Cambrian? Knowledge of relationships between animals may allow us to deduce the answer: the two main branches of the animal tree are protostomes and deuterostomes, while the trunk of the tree includes sponges and cnidarians. The first appearance of these protostome and deuterostome groups is arguably in the Cambrian period – while arguments have been made for an earlier bilaterian, for instance the 555 million year old Kimberella, they are not persuasive – for reasons discussed later in this essay. We can assert that whatever was shared by two or more groups was likely to have been present in their last common ancestor. In this case, all members have bilateral organization in their life stages. Thus, the theory of the common ancestor of bilaterians – Urbilateria – arose (De Robertis Sasai,Show MoreRelatedThe Between Greek And Egyptian Civilizations1596 Words   |  7 Pagesseem as though an eternity has passed between now and 1945 for the centenarian, but even th e oldest amongst us would see the time between the foundation of the greek and egyptian civilizations as having a length much less than the 2500 years that separate the two. 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