Cambrian Animals & Fossils

04Paleozoic

They occupied seafloors for nearly 300 million years, and their compound eyes preserve secrets of early vision.

30Paleozoic

A meter-long swimmer with grasping frontal appendages was a giant of Cambrian seas.

31Paleozoic

Five eyes and a grasping proboscis made this small swimmer one of the Cambrian’s strangest forms.

32Paleozoic

Paired spines guarded a soft-bodied walker once reconstructed upside down.

80Paleozoic

A slender body preserves repeated muscle blocks and internal traces important for interpreting early chordates.

81Paleozoic

Rows of scales and long spines armored this small seafloor grazer.

165Paleozoic

Two pairs of curved head spines, long antennae and dozens of fine legs made this two-centimeter arthropod exquisitely elaborate.

166Paleozoic

Its stout body hid in a U-shaped burrow while a spiny, hook-studded throat could turn inside out to seize food.

204Paleozoic

Ten pairs of stubby legs beneath a soft body place it near the early history of velvet worms and arthropods.

205Paleozoic

A pair of great appendages ended in three long whips that could sense, seize and move food.

206Paleozoic

A huge domed carapace covered its head, giving this radiodont the outline of a tiny finned submarine.

251Paleozoic

Its antennae, gills and clawed legs reveal far more than a mineralized trilobite shell.

252Paleozoic

Robust leg bases formed crushing jaws for small trilobites and other shelled prey.

253Paleozoic

Two large shields covered a soft body equipped with fully segmented trilobite-like limbs.

254Paleozoic

A bivalved carapace, paddle-like tail and brooded eggs reveal an early crustacean relative in detail.

413Paleozoic

A perforated tube once treated as an animal is now linked to a branching alga.

414Paleozoic

Simple narrow blades radiated from a common attachment.

430Paleozoic

A horseshoe-shaped carapace and rake-like appendages made a mobile sediment sifter.

431Paleozoic

An enormous head shield covered most of this bottom-feeding radiodont.

432Paleozoic

A spined bivalved shell enclosed a large-eyed swimming predator.

433Paleozoic

A broad head, long genal spines and many trunk segments marked an early trilobite radiation.

484Paleozoic

Two broad valves enclosed a segmented body while antennae, limbs and a tail fan projected outside.

485Paleozoic

Its nervous, circulatory and limb anatomy makes it central to studies of early arthropod organization.

486Paleozoic

Paired fins, a funnel and tentacle-like appendages form one of the Cambrian's most puzzling swimmers.