Abstract The Cambrian Explosion by nature is a three-phased explosion of animal body
plans alongside episodic biomineralization, pulsed change of generic diversity, body size …

The foundation of the diverse metazoan nervous systems is laid by embryonic patterning
mechanisms, involving the generation and movement of neural progenitors and their …

The origin of motility in bilaterian animals represents an evolutionary innovation that
transformed the Earth system. This innovation probably occurred in the late Ediacaran …

Twenty years after its proposal, the monophyly of molting protostomes—Ecdysozoa—is a
well-corroborated hypothesis, but the interrelationships of its major subclades are more …

The origin and radiation of biomineralizing metazoans represents an important evolutionary
innovation in the history of life. The earliest known skeletal metazoans are dominated by four …

Phylogenomics underpins a stable and mostly well-resolved hypothesis for the
interrelationships of extant arthropods. Exceptionally preserved fossils are integrated into …

The terminal Ediacaran Dengying Formation (c. 551.1–538.8 Ma) in South China is one of
two successions where Ediacara-type macrofossils are preserved in carbonate facies along …

The timescale of animal diversification has been a focus of debate over how evolutionary
history should be calibrated to geologic time. Molecular clock analyses have invariably …

Formal subdivision of the Cambrian System into four series and ten stages is in progress.
The base of Cambrian Stage 3 (provisional), which is conterminous with the base of …

Ecdysozoans (Phyla Arthropoda, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera, Nematoda, Nematomorpha,
Onychophora, Priapulida, Tardigrada) are invertebrates bearing a tough, periodically …