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Description
Good day DeviantArt!
I recently had the idea to do a little somthing special this year. Each month, I will submit a piece of artwork representing a particular stage in earth's history. A kind of Prehistory Calender, if you will, which is what I am going to be calling it. Without further ado, let me introduce you to our first stop,

The Cambrian explosion.
The cambrian explosion is an event in earth's history that occured roughley 541 million years ago, when the world experienced a never-before-seen amount of diversification among living organisms, including the ancestors of most living clades.
How this event was triggered exactly is still a matter of debate, but n important factor is thought to have been the appearance of predators. This forced the organisms they fed upon to develope defensive strategies to avoid getting eaten, which in turn forced the predators to find ways of overcoming those defences, starting the evolutionary arms race that has led to the appearance of all organisms since, including ourselves.
One of the richest sources of insight into this period is the Burgess shale in the canadian rocky mountains, where countless well preserved and highly detailed fossils of cambrian critters have been unearthed.

Pictured Animals:

1. Ctenohrabdotus capulus
Ctenohrabdotus was an early form of cone jelly. It's most distinguished feature are it's 24 comb rows, which much more than any of it's modern relative. It floated passivley in the current, filtering small organic particles from the water as it went.

2. Anomalocaris canadensis
This strange creature is one of the most famous cambrian animals, and is often considerd to be earth's first apex predator. It was equipped with large eyes (some of the first in the animal kingdom), many pairs of fins which it used to propel itself through the water via undulation, two frontal appendages for grabbing prey, and a circular mouth with saw-like teeth known as an oral cone.
It was once believed that Anomalocaris could grow between 1 and 2 meters in length, but more recent estimates place it closer to half a meter. This still makes it gigantic by cambrian standards, only topped by larger radiodonts (the group of stem-arthropods that Anomalocaris belongs to), such as Aegirocassis.

3. Nectocaris pteryx
Nectocaris was a small, soft-bodied, free-swimming animal with an uncertain taxonomical position. It most closley resembles modern cephalopods, but this relationship does not fall in line with what is known about cephalopod evolution. The least controversial theory suggests that it is not a true cephalopod, but shares a common ancestor with them from some part of the mollusc family tree, it's squid-like appearance being the result of convergeant evolution.

4. Hallucigenia sparsa
One of the most interesting critters of the Burgess shale, Hallucigenia is strange even by cambrian standards. When this creature was first discovred, it was reconstructed with spikes as legs and tentacles growing from it's back. It was later discovered that the animal had been shown upside down: the spikes grew out of it's back (where they were much more useful for defense), and the tentacles where actually it's legs.
We now know that it also had a distinct head and three pairs of arm-like tentacles. The first five pairs of legs ended in two small claws, the last two pairs each ended in one. Hallucigenia used these claws to cling to the sponges it most likley fed on.
It belongs to a group of stem-arthropods called lobopodians, who may be related to velvet worms or tardigrades, or represent a basal stage of arthropod evolution.

5. Opabinia regalis
Opabina was a small predatory stem-arthropod most closley related to the radiodonts. It's defining features are it's five eyes und the grasping claws at the end of it's trunk, which it used to grab prey and pass it to the mouth, which was located beneath the head. Opabinia probably lived near the sea floor and primarily hunted by probing the sand for burrowing creatures.

6. Pikaia gracilens
Pikaia is one of the most important fossil animals of the burgess shale, as it is either a close relative or basal member of the phylum chordata, making it one of the earliest known ancestors of vertebrates, including humans. Anatomically, it is most comparable to lancelets.
Pikaia was a good swimmer and most likley fed on small marine organisms that it filtered from the water.

7. Wiwaxia corrugata
Wiwaxia was an early mollusc relative coverd in hard scales and dorsal spikes for defense, giving it a slight superficial resemblance to sea urchins. Wiwaxia crawled slowly over the sea floor, using it's mouthparts to gather organic detritus from among the sediment.

8. Olenoides serratus
Olenoides was a trilobite, the most common species of these animals to be found in the burgess shale. It was one of Anomalocaris's favourite prey items, as is shown by wounds on fossiliized exoskeletons of certain specimens. However, Olenoides was a predator itself, prowling the ocwan floor for worms and other soft bodied animals to feed on.

9. Yohoia senius
Yohoia was a megacheirid arachnomorph similar in appearance to modern mantis shrimps. It had pair of jointed appendeges at the front of it's body that ended in hand-like spikes. These were probably used during hunting to impale and kill prey with a swift punch.

Description
Good day DeviantArt!
I recently had the idea to do a little somthing special this year. Each month, I will submit a piece of artwork representing a particular stage in earth's history. A kind of Prehistory Calender, if you will, which is what I am going to be calling it. Without further ado, let me introduce you to our first stop,

The Cambrian explosion.
The cambrian explosion is an event in earth's history that occured roughley 541 million years ago, when the world experienced a never-before-seen amount of diversification among living organisms, including the ancestors of most living clades.
How this event was triggered exactly is still a matter of debate, but n important factor is thought to have been the appearance of predators. This forced the organisms they fed upon to develope defensive strategies to avoid getting eaten, which in turn forced the predators to find ways of overcoming those defences, starting the evolutionary arms race that has led to the appearance of all organisms since, including ourselves.
One of the richest sources of insight into this period is the Burgess shale in the canadian rocky mountains, where countless well preserved and highly detailed fossils of cambrian critters have been unearthed.

Pictured Animals:

1. Ctenohrabdotus capulus
Ctenohrabdotus was an early form of cone jelly. It's most distinguished feature are it's 24 comb rows, which much more than any of it's modern relative. It floated passivley in the current, filtering small organic particles from the water as it went.

2. Anomalocaris canadensis
This strange creature is one of the most famous cambrian animals, and is often considerd to be earth's first apex predator. It was equipped with large eyes (some of the first in the animal kingdom), many pairs of fins which it used to propel itself through the water via undulation, two frontal appendages for grabbing prey, and a circular mouth with saw-like teeth known as an oral cone.
It was once believed that Anomalocaris could grow between 1 and 2 meters in length, but more recent estimates place it closer to half a meter. This still makes it gigantic by cambrian standards, only topped by larger radiodonts (the group of stem-arthropods that Anomalocaris belongs to), such as Aegirocassis.

3. Nectocaris pteryx
Nectocaris was a small, soft-bodied, free-swimming animal with an uncertain taxonomical position. It most closley resembles modern cephalopods, but this relationship does not fall in line with what is known about cephalopod evolution. The least controversial theory suggests that it is not a true cephalopod, but shares a common ancestor with them from some part of the mollusc family tree, it's squid-like appearance being the result of convergeant evolution.

4. Hallucigenia sparsa
One of the most interesting critters of the Burgess shale, Hallucigenia is strange even by cambrian standards. When this creature was first discovred, it was reconstructed with spikes as legs and tentacles growing from it's back. It was later discovered that the animal had been shown upside down: the spikes grew out of it's back (where they were much more useful for defense), and the tentacles where actually it's legs.
We now know that it also had a distinct head and three pairs of arm-like tentacles. The first five pairs of legs ended in two small claws, the last two pairs each ended in one. Hallucigenia used these claws to cling to the sponges it most likley fed on.
It belongs to a group of stem-arthropods called lobopodians, who may be related to velvet worms or tardigrades, or represent a basal stage of arthropod evolution.

5. Opabinia regalis
Opabina was a small predatory stem-arthropod most closley related to the radiodonts. It's defining features are it's five eyes und the grasping claws at the end of it's trunk, which it used to grab prey and pass it to the mouth, which was located beneath the head. Opabinia probably lived near the sea floor and primarily hunted by probing the sand for burrowing creatures.

6. Pikaia gracilens
Pikaia is one of the most important fossil animals of the burgess shale, as it is either a close relative or basal member of the phylum chordata, making it one of the earliest known ancestors of vertebrates, including humans. Anatomically, it is most comparable to lancelets.
Pikaia was a good swimmer and most likley fed on small marine organisms that it filtered from the water.

7. Wiwaxia corrugata
Wiwaxia was an early mollusc relative coverd in hard scales and dorsal spikes for defense, giving it a slight superficial resemblance to sea urchins. Wiwaxia crawled slowly over the sea floor, using it's mouthparts to gather organic detritus from among the sediment.

8. Olenoides serratus
Olenoides was a trilobite, the most common species of these animals to be found in the burgess shale. It was one of Anomalocaris's favourite prey items, as is shown by wounds on fossiliized exoskeletons of certain specimens. However, Olenoides was a predator itself, prowling the ocwan floor for worms and other soft bodied animals to feed on.

9. Yohoia senius
Yohoia was a megacheirid arachnomorph similar in appearance to modern mantis shrimps. It had pair of jointed appendeges at the front of it's body that ended in hand-like spikes. These were probably used during hunting to impale and kill prey with a swift punch.