Life in the Paleozoic Ocean Planet & The Great Migration Ocean Planet & The Great Migration
Paleozoic Myr Early Middle Late
Skeletons and Shells Small Shelly Fossils (SSF’s) (Very) Late Proterozoic
Shells & Skeletons: Advantages of Hard Parts 1.Protection from UV - survive in shallow water 2.Prevents drying out - intertidal zone 3.Predator protection 4.Provides support - inc. size 5.Potential to build reefs Advantage to us - make better fossils!
Planet Ocean Early Paleozoic Ray Troll
Major Animal Phylum All originate in the Early Paleozoic
Marine Lifestyles Pelagic (“Open Water Dwellers”) Deep or Shallow Benthic (“Bottom Dwellers”)
Pelagic Lifestyles Plankton (“Drifters”) Nekton (“Swimmers”)
Benthic Lifestyles Epifaunal (“Above Ground”) Infauna (“Below Ground”)
Cambrian Fossils
Burgess Shale Ray Troll
“Jump” in Diversity
Cambrian Explosion
Wiwaxia
Hallucigenia © 2003 by Karen Carr
Opabinia
Anomalocaris
Pikaia (early Chordate)
Trilobites (Arthropods)
Trilobite Eye
Other Arthropods (Chengjiang, China)
Porifera (Sponges)
Animation
Sponge Spicules
Fossil Paleozoic Sponge
A Semi-Colonial Ancestor to all Animals?
Cnideria (Corals & Jellyfish)
Types
Corals
Order Tabulata (Extinct)
Order Rugosa (Horn Corals) (Extinct)
Order Scleratina (Hexacorals)
Bryozoans (Moss Animals)
Lacy Bryozoans
Freshwater Bryozoan
Bryozoan Colony First Fossils: Ordovician
Fossil Bryozoan
Graptolites
Dendroid
Graptoloid
Mollusks Ordovician Cephalopods Ordovician Gastropods
Brachiopods (Lamp Shells)
Annelids (Segmented Worms) Cambrian (China)
Echinoderms
What Led to the Cambrian Explosion? Hard Parts? Predators?