Timeline of the Universe · event
The Cambrian Explosion
13.26 billion years — 539 million years ago · Life on Earth
- Temperature (K)
- 2.8
- When
- 13.26 billion years — 539 million years ago
- Redshift
- z ≈ 0.04
- Era
- Life on Earth
- Seconds After Big Bang
- 418388089326000000
What Happened
Animal body plans appear over a few tens of millions of years, and — for the first time — so do hard parts. Calcite, aragonite and calcium phosphate get recruited into shells, spines and teeth, which is both why the fossil record starts here and why biomineralisation is a subject at all.
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