Cambrian PeriodAustralia during Cambrian Period Cambrian Period covers the time between 545 and 490 million years ago. It starts after a long period (longer than the whole Paleozoic Era which the Cambrian is only a part of) of ice ages and mass extinctions in the end of Precambrian Era. As the ice ages ended and the climate got warmer, a lot of warm shallow seas were created. Conditions were perfect for the Cambrian Explosion - the event where, after almost 3000 years of primitive life consisting of procaryotic and eukaryotic cells and stromatolite-forming cyanobacteria, an amazing amount of animal species suddenly evolved only within a few million years. They were marine animals such as shellfish, corals, gastropods, crinoids, bivalves, graptolites, ammonites, brachipods, bryozoans and trilobites - still primitive compared to today's animals, but they were the first animals with skeletons (either shells or vertebrates); and trilobites were the first animals with eyes. Before the Cambrian period, no-one had actually seen the world. Australia was still connected to Gondwana continent, and the eastern third of it, from Cape York peninsula in north to Adelaide in south, was deep, open ocean. Tasman Line - a line drawn inland from Cairns to south-western Queensland and north-eastern South Australia, then a turn to New South Wales (Broken Hill) and then south-west to Kangaroo Island - marks the original coastline of Gondwana, and the eastern edge of Precambrian Rocks. Shallow seas covered much of Northern Territory and South Australia. Most of Cambrian fossils in Australia are found in sedimentary rocks in these areas. Some good examples are Flinders Ranges in South Australia, MacDonnells Ranges in Northern Territory and Kimberleys in northern Western Australia. There are no records of Cambrian rocks in southern WA.  Custom Search Looking for anything? Custom Search
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