Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

‘John Phillips and the Cambrian Explosion’

Professor Rachel Wood, Professor of Carbonate Geoscience, University of Edinburgh

In 1841, John Phillips published the first global geological time scale, based on the correlation of fossils in rock strata. This fundamental concept has underpinned our understanding of the ebb and flow of life on earth through time.  The Cambrian Explosion, 540-520 million years ago marks the appearance and rise of animals on Earth. During this time we saw the rapid emergence of all major modern groups, modern-style food webs, as well as a substantial rise of animal abundance and biodiversity.  This talk will explore the processes that may have driven this revolutionary event. Were both internal (genetic) or external (physicochemical) processes important? This radiation took place on a totally different Earth – with many continental land masses clustering around the tropics, no polar ice caps, and much lower atmospheric oxygen levels compared to today. Life had not colonised land and the modern carbon cycle was yet to form. While we are starting to understand how new forms of developmental gene regulatory networks, pulses of oxygenation, and ecological feedbacks played key roles, unpicking the drivers of the Cambrian Explosion remain a profound puzzle in the history of life.

A John Phillips 150th Anniversary Lecture

Lecture to be held in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre, Yorkshire Museum,
YO1 7DR at 7pm.

Photo: Geological strata that record the root of the Cambrian Explosion. Nama Group, Namibia. Photo: Rachel Wood