The Cambrian Explosion, part 4: Oxygen and hard parts
After the Ediacaran and the small shellies; in the Cambrian, oxygen in the sea finally reached a level where gilled animals could breathe efficiently and grow big. This oxygen was […]
Category Archives: Ediacaran
The Cambrian Explosion, part 3: Small shellies and small skeletons
The first 20-million years of the Cambrian appears to be an empty void between the Ediacarans from the previous post and the well known Cambrians. But pull out the looking […]
The Cambrian Explosion, part 2: The softies of Ediacara
For a long time, geologists logically set the dawn of the Cambrian at the first fossils, at the trilobites and their friends, which we met in the first post. But […]
The Cambrian Explosion, part 1: The burghers of Burgess
Burgher: A privileged city citizen in medieval Europe. And now, for something completely different. (Monty Python) First, there was no life. There were layers of sediment rock; sandstone, shale, limestone, […]
What geology can teach us about climate change: How CO2 saved the Earth from eternal winter – and nearly boiled it later
Environmental activists sometimes scare us with the prospect of a runaway greenhouse: If we continue to spew out CO2, the Earth may become so hot that it is uninhabitable. Looking […]
Ediacarans: The fossils that should not be there
The Ediacara Hills is a hot, dry area in the middle of nowhere in South Australia. A place people go if they must, like for mining for uranium and other […]