Geology 126 - The Cambrian Explosion

The origin of animals was arguably the most;important event in earth history. In this course;we will review the history of earth, learn basic;geology, and then examine the problem of the;origin of animals by studying Mount Holyoke;College's superb and unique collection of;Proterozoic and Cambrian fossils. The emergence;of animals has been called the Cambrian;explosion. We will examine what this means for;our understanding of evolution as we evaluate;hypotheses proposed to explain the relatively;sudden appearance of more than half of known;animal phyla during the Cambrian event.