Dear reader,

The Cambrian explosion was a time in our history that brought an evolution of an incredibly diverse cast of creatures. This period of time began around 540 million years ago, where once there were only simple, single-celled organisms there was suddenly an innumerable amount of complex animals. The first creatures to split into the classifications of creatures we know today. This included chordates, a classification to which vertebrates, including humans, belong. There was a surge in the development of new traits common in today’s arthropods, namely compound eyes, jointed legs, antennae, tough exoskeletons, and the earliest predatory jaws. Complexity had just been born, animals with shells and exoskeletons roamed the sea and were able to be more easily fossilized, helping us to better understand how the first multicellular organisms evolved. These first animals were bizarre, evolving the first ways to hunt and evade.

Being able to choose my own topic helped me feel more connected to it and increased my interest since it was something I was already curious about. I had very little previous knowledge on the topic but was driven to learn more. This meant I already had questions I wanted answers to before starting the project. I wanted to combine my love of prehistoric animals with my love of marine animals. I also wanted to learn something that I knew would not be taught at an in-depth level. This led me to choose the Cambrian Explosion, something that not many people are familiar with but that was crucially important in the evolution of multicellular life as we know it. 

This project really opened my eyes to just how strange and alien our earth used to be. Animals have progressed so much since their early ancestors, yet you can still see some similarities between animals today and during the Cambrian. My hope is that you will gain a greater appreciation for the world around you after learning how frivolous life as we know it once was. Rather than focusing on the ancient world presented by media - the roaring dinosaurs and intense action-packed predation - think about the worlds which came before it. The first eruption of life and complexity: the Cambrian Explosion.