ABSTRACT

The Cambrian Explosion, 540-520 million years ago marks the appearance and rise of animals on Earth. During this time we saw the rapid emergence of all major modern groups, modern-style food webs, as well as a substantial rise of animal abundance and biodiversity. This talk will be explore the processes that may have driven this revolutionary event. Were both internal (genetic) or external (physicochemical) processes important? This radiation took place on a totally different Earth - with many continental land masses clustering around the tropics, no polar ice caps, and much lower atmospheric oxygen levels compared to today. Life had not colonised land and the modern carbon cycle was yet to form. While we are starting to understand how new forms of developmental gene regulatory networks, pulses of oxygenation, and ecological feedbacks played key roles, unpicking the drivers of the Cambrian Explosion remain a profound puzzle in the history of life.

About the Speaker:

Rachel Wood is a field-based geologist and palaeontologist, with research interests in the Cambrian Radiation of animals, early biomineralisation, mass extinctions, and the evolution of reefs. Her research has focused on integrating the unique biological, geological, and geochemical characteristics of ancient biotas to understand the co-evolution of life and Earth. Rachel has been Chair of Carbonate Geoscience at the University of Edinburgh,UK, since 2012. She was awarded the Johannes Walther Medal of the International Association of Sedimentologists in 2018, the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2020, and became a Corresponding Member of the Gottingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. She is Honorary Consul to Namibia in Scotland.