Life Hit Fast-Forward
Around 538.8 million years ago, Earth entered the Cambrian explosion—a period when complex animal life spread with surprising speed. In roughly 13 to 25 million years, most major animal phyla began showing up in the fossil record.Cambrian Explosion: When Animal Life Seemed to Appear at Once
Before This, Life Was Mostly Simple
Before the Cambrian explosion, life was mostly single cells, small multicellular organisms, or simple colonies. Then diversification sped up, and animal life began to look much more like the world we know.Cambrian Explosion: When Animal Life Seemed to Appear at Once
