The Strange Case of the Cambrian Explosion

An exploration of the strange explosion of biodiversity that happened at the beginning of the Cambrian age.

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[Popsthechute]

Merry christmas John, thanks for all the content over the years

[proudwhitesettler]

In a way the Ediacaran Period is even stranger than the Cambrian. Life was experimenting with some bizarre life forms, most of which did not survive the transition to the Cambrian. Great job, as always, Mr. Godier.

[justinkindler]

It’s amazing. The more we learn through science, the more we learn what we don’t know. I appreciate you making to make the commitment to make more videos before years end. JMG for the win!

[DNDpaintmichigan]

Hey John! Merry Christmas, and soon to be Happy New Year! The future looks bright for you and your channel as always!

[MCMLXXXIX]

You gotta talk about the Ediacaran next. Super weird, super strange, super mysterious organisms unlike anything alive today.

[gland]

I just got a box of trilobite shaped Christmas Cookies and then this pops up

[markadams]

I would love to see into the Cambrian seas. I've often tried to picture the small ecology existing in a small primordial tidal pool, seeing our ancestral precursors dancing in the shallow tides of time, riding out their brief existence under the same star as us. It's a beautiful and humbling thought experiment.

[samotdengode]

Hey John I personally would not mind a "out of the norm" type video on how your writing progress for videos and especially novels are! Happy holidays to all!

[yip]

great day to be a jmg fan. Another banger as always

[jimmyzhao]

JMG episodes are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. 😃
[But always the finest high quality]

[hyksos]

The beginning of the Cambrian explosion might actually be linked to the advent of wormworld in which burrowing worms evolved and started breaking up the microbial mats covering the sea floor and churning the mud beneath it, freeing minerals trapped therein.

[tdpay]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the complex life forms of the Ediacaran Period, which predated the Cambrian explosion. It makes sense that complex life may have evolved many times without being preserved. Anton Petrov posted an interesting video five months ago about supposed fossil remains that are four times older than the Cambrian explosion (Controversial Evidence of Complex Life on Earth 2.1 Billion Years Ago).

[blowfishes]

Thank you for yet another fabulous video ❤

[TreiPani]

Come for the facts and speculation, stay for the voice. Great video JMG.

[winstoncrew]

Happy holidays to you John!! Thanks again for always making entertaining and educational content. You the man!!

[PaxAlotin]

John,
One thing about the Stromatolites that you can't appreciate until you are at their location - is the smell.
Its different for different people - but for me - they smelled of stewed cabbage with whiffs of Sulfur or similar.

[stevenkrasner]

Another Happy New Year JMG. Looking forward to another great year ahead and I am so excited about the new book!

[fredwood]

Something to think about: At about the same time as the Cambrian Explosion, our solar system entered a minor void in space, with fewer stars nearby and so much less cosmic rays to damage the life forms already here. I assume the ozone layer firmed as a result of having fewer rays damaging it, so it could thicken enough to be of actual use as a shield. We may leave that void someday and then we will see if things get worse for us, the Children of the Cambrian Explosion.

[greenmagicball]

I love thinking about the strange, beautiful, or alien-seeming as animals that existed in the geologic past but didn't preserve for us to see. A great example of a weird creature is Tullymonstrum, a strange sea creature with a proboscis with a claw at the end. Is it an arthropod? Vertebrate? It's still not clear. What else have we missed? In this regard the deep geologic past and theoretical life-bearing exoplanets are the same: full of strange creatures that we could not even imagine.

[jaycobobob]

Lol at the random Climate Change community note. Another great vid as always JMG, thank you!