The Cambrian radiation - the movement of animals from water to land 550 million years ago is one of the most important episodes in Earth history and changed the marine biosphere and its sedimentary environment forever. This book offers a comprehensive picture of the Earth at that time and contains contributions from 33 authors.
Introduction, by Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev and Robert RidingI. The Environment2. Paleomagnetically and Tectonically Based Global Maps for Vendian to Mid-Ordovician Time, by Alan G. Smith3. Global Facies Distributions from Late Vendian to Mid-Ordovician, by Kirill B. Seslavinsky and Irina D. Maidanskaya4. Did Supercontinental Amalgamation Trigger the "Cambrian Explosion"?, by Martin D. Brasier and John F. Lindsay5. Climate Change at the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Transition, by Toni T. Eerola6. Australian Early and Middle Cambrian Sequence Biostratigraphy with Implications for Species Diversity and Correlation, by David I. Gravestock and John H. Shergold7. The Cambrian Radiation and the Diversification of Sedimentary Fabrics, by Mary L. Droser and Xing LiII. Community Patterns and Dynamics8. Biotic Diversity and Structure During the Neoproterozoic-Ordovician Transition, by Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev9. Ecology and Evolution of Cambrian Plankton, by Nicholas J. Butterfield10. Evolution of Shallow-Water Level-Bottom Commuties, by Mikhail B. Burzin, Francoise Debrenne, and Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev11. Evolution of the Hardground Community, by Sergei V. Rozhnov12. Ecology and Evolution of the Cambrian Reefs, by Brian R. Pratt, Ben R. Spincer, Rachel A. Wood, and Andrey Yu. Zhuravlev13. Evolution of the Deep-Water Benthic Community, by T. Peter CrimesIII. Ecologic Radiation of Major Groups of Organisms14. Sponges, Cnidarians, and Ctenophores, by Francoise Debrenne and Joachim Reitner15. Mollusks, Hyoliths, Stenothecoids, and Coeloscleritophorans, by Arten V. Kouchinsky16. Brachiopods, by Galina T. Ushatinskaya17. Ecologic Evolution of Cambrian Trilobites, by Nigel C. Hughes18. Ecology of Nontrilobite Arthropods and Lobopods in the Cambrian, by Graham E. Budd19. Ecologic Radiation of Cambro-Ordovician Echinoderms, by Thomas E. Guensburg and James Sprinkle20. Calcified Algae and Bacteria, by Robert Riding21. Molecular Fossils Demonstrate Precambrian Origin of Dinoflagellates, by J. M. Moldowan, S. Jacobson, J. Dahl, A. Al-Hajji, B. Huizinga, and F. Fago
Andrey Yu Zhuravlev is at the Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Robert Riding is at the Department of Earth Sciences of Cardiff University in Wales.
Certainly grabs one's attention... brings a great deal of information together under a single cover... invaluable. Palaios Goes a long way towards filling a major gap in the available palaeontological literature... Every library should have a copy, as should anyone seriously interested in life in the Cambrian. Geological Magazine