The rapid diversification of multicellular animal life that took place around the beginning of the Cambrian Period. It resulted in the appearance of almost all modern animal phyla.
See Note at Burgess Shale
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Previous genetic studies and fossil traces suggested that many animal lineages existed before the Cambrian explosion.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 6, 2026
Then came the Cambrian explosion, known as evolution's "big bang", roughly 540 million years ago.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
“Creativity could be about to go through a Cambrian explosion, and along with it, the quality of art and entertainment can drastically increase,” Altman wrote, calling this genre of engagement “interactive fan fiction.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2025
Although the species was probably not the common ancestor to all ecdysozoans, the authors note, the discovery contributes a significant addition to our understanding of the diversity of life before the so-called Cambrian explosion.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 19, 2024
Perhaps some key steps in the development of the genetic code, or the Cambrian explosion, or bipedal stature among our ancestors were initiated by cosmic rays.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
It shows that important elements of their body plan were already established shortly after the Cambrian Explosion, a time when life was rapidly diversifying.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026
During the Cambrian Explosion more than 500 million years ago, these weird worms — which lived inside long, cone-shaped tubes — were some of the most common predators on the seafloor.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
In Wales, paleontologists have uncovered a rich source of 462-million-year-old fossils that reveal more overlap than expected between animals that evolved during the Cambrian Explosion 40 million years earlier and the ancestors of modern species.
From Science Magazine ● May 3, 2023
"Before the Cambrian Explosion, we don't really see much going on or at least we can't really detect eyes very well in the available fossils," Briscoe explains.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2023
Paleontologists refer to this event as the Cambrian Explosion, named after the first period in the Paleozoic.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
