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Did emerging continents trigger metazoan evolution?

Nature volume 276, pages 701–703 (1978)Cite this article

Abstract

A DIVERSE fauna of trilobites, archaeocyathids, and other shelly invertebrates can be found in rocks of early Cambrian age, but in strata antedating the Cambrian such skeletonised remains are notably absent. This seemingly abrupt appearance of multi-cellular animals seemed illusory to Darwin1, whose vision of evolution assumed the gradual transmutation of species over innumerable generations. His view of life necessitated a long Precambrian record of evolving Metazoa and he, therefore, attributed the apparent absence of Proterozoic fossils to the imperfection of the fossil record and the vagaries of sedimentary geology. Discoveries of the past two decades have shown the first metazoans to be less ancient than Darwin believed. It now seems that the Metazoa evolved only in the latest Precambrian (perhaps 750–650 Myr ago), and that 100–150 Myr of evolution was sufficient to delineate the various phyla in evidence at the base of the Cambrian. The question of whether emerging continents controlled the late appearance of multicellular animals on Earth is discussed here.

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  1. Department of Geology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 44074

    A. H. KNOLL

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KNOLL, A. Did emerging continents trigger metazoan evolution?. Nature 276, 701–703 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276701a0

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