The Cambrian ends
Fifty-two million years after it began, the great burst of body plans is over — and diversity is about to soar.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Ordovician, Paleozoic
The Cambrian closes at 486.85 million years ago with marine ecosystems recognisably modern in structure: predators, filter feeders, burrowers, reef builders and swimmers. What follows is not the invention of new body plans but an enormous expansion within them — the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event will multiply the number of marine families several times over without producing a single new phylum.