The Complete History of the Earth: Cambrian Period

🎵It’s the Cambrian explosion🎵

Paleoart really understates how small most of the cambrian fauna really was. Seeing reconstructions of Hallucigenia or Opabinia I always got the impression they were the size of a trout or something, but nope, they grew barely to the size of a pinky finger. Sure, there were also some decently sized critters like Anomalocaris but even they are small compared to the creatures yet to come. I do really like the Paleozoic because it's far less popular than the Mesozoic but features an equally interesting and far more strange flora and fauna.

Watching TimTim evolve before our eyes in a matter of weeks sheds tear They grow so fast! I'm really loving your videos

Dude, let me tell you, I have ADHD and your videos capture my attention better than any educational video I’ve ever seen. You should be a teacher, you have a real talent for this.

The Cambrian has quickly become one of my favorite eras. I think it’s partly to do with game Birthday’s The Beginning, which introduced me to a lot of these very early forms of life. Just watching them sprout up in that game and dominate my seascapes always fills me with such wonder and excitement

Some paleontologists think Anomalocaris could not eat trilobites b/c a computer simulation suggested the radial teeth around the outside of the mouth would break trying to bite through trilobite armor. But radiodonts had 2 sets of teeth - the outer teeth that looked like a camera aperture & "throat teeth" on the inside of their mouth -- I wonder if maybe the outer radial teeth might have been used to hold the prey up against the mouth (after the "shrimp arms" handed the prey back to the mouth) & then the "throat teeth" inside the mouth could do the work of biting chunks off the prey. I know that is speculative, but Anomalocaris was so far back in time a lot of things are

You earned a subscriber for how much effort you put into this series. I look forward to seeing this continued.

Dinosaurs are fun, but I find the animals in earlier eras a lot more interesting. Thanks for doing these videos.

I’m 44yrs old, live in regional Western Australia & I’m loving this series already, in one big fat binge watching session! But I’ve enjoyed your other videos too = how I stumbled across these, digging through your playlists for more! I don’t know if you care, but I enjoy collecting rocks & fossils from my own backyard. They say there is no evidence of dinosaurs in Western Australia & that’s such a big fat lie. U can see their skeletal remains exposed in the sides of hills, people out bones on their lawns as displays & there’s 3 places that I have personally been to where you know something major happened. There’s a place known as greenough blowholes where u can still see this massive pile up of bodies, beasts of the oceans trying to escape from the water onto land & beasts on the land trying to escape that same threat by trying to jump into the seas. The only thing I can think of that would trigger such a response from land AND sea animals is heat. Some intense deathly heat from which there WAS no escape. I’ve seen the same thing in 2 places inland, all 3 places separated by a good 500-700kms, but the response was clearly the same, giant hills formed by animals climbing away from some catastrophic event, clambering on top of one another to escape the inescapable. These remains are so detailed that you can literally make out the individual scales on reptiles & plates on crocodilians. They’re also super fragile, almost like compacted dust, or giant creepy sandcastles because of how white they are. I’ve found jaw bones one feet long, I have giant claws still attached to the bone of whatever creature it belonged too. There’s plains & plains of fossilised remains, mainly skulls & vertebrae where they had been rolled around & eventually dumped by some massive body of water, the trickling remains we now call the Murchison river, but it’s easy to see that millions of years ago this river was a decent 50-60km wide. It also carved out beautiful cliff faced gorges as it rushed out to sea at a place called Kalbarri. Absolutely stunning btw if you ever want to travel. Apparently Western Australia is the oldest known land mass on the planet & FYI stromatolites are found all along the coast, they’re definitely not confined to JUST shark bay as we are told. It’s an amazing place, & I’m so proud to call it home coz it’s almost as interesting as these fantastic videos I’m so grateful to have found. Now to let the binge continue!! 👏👏❤️😂

Thanks for making these videos. I love learning about different prehistoric animals. Learning about ones that aren't dinosaurs has be super cool.

So fascinating to see what some of the first creatures on Earth may have looked like. You've really opened my eyes to how becoming highly specialized can make a species VERY weird. It also gives me perspective as to how some of the weirdness we see today came to be!

8:18 funny worm that keeps moving forward

These videos are the best, used to have a bunch of books about these eras as a kid. The world was just so alien then. Still is in a way I guess..

Subscribed. I watched a few eps before doing so but realized when I went to your channel for entertainment randomly a lightbulb clicked. I really enjoy the content, this doesn't even feel like learning to me. You have "the Gift."

You’re doing a great job. Have my grandkids, 10 and 5 1/2, watching too. They love you’re videos! Thanks.

Another great episode! Well done, man!

LOVE your channel. This is all so fascinating. For me, the only improvement would be longer videos. I just love how you present everything!

So informative AND interesting. Should be used in school.....thanks for all the time and effort you put into this.

Great video. You have enjoyable narration to listen to.

Another great episode, thanks :)