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Volcano eruptions claimed as driving force for Cambrian animal evolution

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In New Scientist

The idea is, previous Ediacaran animals (600 mya) evolved on ice-covered Snowball Earth, but the Cambrians evolved when Earth was warmer:

“You had single cell organisms, single cell, single cell, then weird Ediacaran oddballs, and – suddenly – snails and bivalves and sea stars and a whole range of groups that typify the record for the rest of time,” says McKenzie’s colleague Paul Myrow of Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Volcanic activity demonstrated by zircon formation, we are told, produced greenhouse gases that warmed the Earth and drove species diversity.

Volcanic activity has not usually been considered so benign, and just what specific questions warm temperatures in the Cambrian shed light on remain unclear.

Oh well, movies:

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