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Fossils found around the world suggest that multi-cellular life was not only present before the Cambrian Explosion, it was much more elaborate and diverse than anyone thought. This is the story of the sudden burst of diversity that marked the dawn of truly complex life on our planet.

Thanks to Franz Anthony and Studio 252mya for their illustrations. You can find more of Franz’s work here: https://252mya.com/gallery/franz-anthony

Thanks as always to Nobu Tamura for allowing us to use his wonderful paleoart: http://spinops.blogspot.com/

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

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References:
http://www.stratigraphy.org/gssp/ediacaran.pdf
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/ediacaran.php
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/10/e1500800.full
http://burgess-shale.rom.on.ca/en/science/origin/03-enigmatic-edicarans.php
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vendian/ediacara.html
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0708336105
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/305/5687/1141.full
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/319/5859/81.full
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/36/13122.full
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1793/20141202
http://www.pnas.org/content/97/13/6947.full