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BOOM TIME. “The significant increase in standing diversity began approximately 500 million years ago. During the Ordovician, marine family diversity tripled and those clades that came to dominate the next 250 million years radiated.” (See Figure 1). https://lnkd.in/eVq28Qh View in LinkedIn

DIVERSIFICATION CONTINUED. “Marine family diversity tripled and within clade diversity increases occurred at the genus and species levels. The Ordovician radiation established the Paleozoic Evolutionary Fauna; those taxa which dominated the marine realm for the next 250 million years. Community structure dramatically increased in complexity.” https://lnkd.in/eVq28Qh View in LinkedIn

LATER COMPLEXIFICATION. “There was a major diversification known as the Ordovician Radiation, in the period immediately following the Cambrian. This event is unique in taxonomic, ecologic and biogeographic aspects. While all of the phyla but one were established during the Cambrian explosion, taxonomic increases during the Ordovician were manifest at lower taxonomic levels although ordinal level diversity doubled.” https://lnkd.in/eVq28Qh View in LinkedIn

“NO NEW PHYLA have evolved since the Cambrian.” Meditate on this one. https://lnkd.in/ex6BW5w View in LinkedIn

NEGATIVE CORRELATION. "In semelparous plants, a trade-off between survival and reproduction is supported by both experimental and comparative evidence. Various methods of preventing reproduction can extend life span, and reproductive effort is negatively correlated with life span across species." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

SINGLE CAMBRIAN ORIGIN. “Evidence of metazoan activity in both trace and body fossils then increased during the 13 million years leading to the explosion. All living phyla may have originated by the end of the explosion.” http://dev.biologists.org/content/develop/126/5/851.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

ADAPTIVE FOR REPRODUCTION. "In Pacific salmon and the marsupial Antechinus stuartii, the ability to exploit tissue protein as an energy reserve may increase reproductive success. In Octopus, the behavioral effects of optic gland secretion are likely to have an impact on hatching success, as time spent feeding is time not spent on brood care." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

SINGLE POINT EXPLOSION. “We owe the great diversity that we see today (plus or minus 10 million species) to the incredible diversification that occurred during the Cambrian period.” https://lnkd.in/ex6BW5w View in LinkedIn

SELF-EMOLIATION. "In vertebrates, for example, the high levels of free corticosteroids that trigger rapid senescence and death also allow tissue protein to be consumed as an energy source during a brief and intensely competitive breeding season." https://lnkd.in/ecP3KMX View in LinkedIn

BODY PLAN DIVERSITY. “The Cambrian explosion is named for the geologically sudden appearance of numerous metazoan body plans (many of living phyla) between about 530 and 520 million years ago, only 1.7% of the duration of the fossil record of animals.” https://lnkd.in/eagvRCB View in LinkedIn