Cambrian explosion
Syllables: Cam·bri·an ex·plo·sionUK/ˈkam.bɹɪ.ən ɪkˈspləʊ.ʒən/US/ˈkæm.bɹi.ən ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/
Cambrian explosion proper noun: the relatively rapid appearance, during the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record.
Proper noun
Cambrian explosion (plural Cambrian explosions)
- The relatively rapid appearance, during the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record.
- Alternatively, if animals had a relatively long Precambrian history, why do so many kinds appear abruptly and more or less synchronously in the fossil record during Early Cambran time? Was there an external environmental factor that either prevented animals from becoming fossilizable (i.e., large...1992, “Evolution of the Earliest Animals”, in J[ames] William Schopf, editor, Major Events in the History of Life [Proceedings from a Symposium Convened by the IGPP Center for the Study of Evolution...
- A major adaptive radiation took place during the Cambrian Period that resulted in the evolution of most of the known phyla (broad groupings of organisms) as well as other phyla that have since become extinct. This geologically rapid appearance of diverse multicellular life is referred to as the...2008 May, “Affected Environment”, in Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Geothermal Leasing in the Western United States (DES 08-22), volume I (Programmatic Analysis), [Washington...
- Synonyms:
- biological big bang
Noun
Cambrian explosion (plural Cambrian explosions)
- The rapid appearance of anything.
- There has been a Cambrian explosion of cryptocurrencies.
- When we examined the detailed history of the evolution, we fond large gaps of time in which little happened at all. Then we saw the sudden appearance of a key circuit (an enabling technology) and quick use of this for further technologies. A full adder circuit might appear after say 32,000 steps...2009, W[illiam] Brian Arthur, The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves, London: Allen Lane, Penguin Group, →ISBN
Cambrian explosion meaning in Hindi, Arabic, Indonesian and Persian
Cambrian explosion in Hindi
- the rapid appearance, around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla
- कैम्ब्रियाई विस्तार kaimbriyāī vistār
Cambrian explosion in Arabic
- the rapid appearance, around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla
- انفجار كامبري
Cambrian explosion in Indonesian
- the rapid appearance, around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla
- letusan Kambrium, radiasi Kambrium
Cambrian explosion in Persian
- the rapid appearance, around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla
- انفجار کامبرین
More languagesFewer languages
- Cambrian explosion in Vietnamese
- bùng nổ kỷ Cambri
Examples of Cambrian explosion in a sentence
- Evidence of transitional stages is missing both in the living world and in the "Cambrian explosions" at Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies and at the Chengjiang site in China.2011, Michael Ebifegha, “Introduction”, in Creation or Evolution?: Origin of Species in Light of Science’s Limitations and Historical...
- Here and there, and likely very rarely, a few planets may have undergone their own Cambrian explosions.2014, Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark R. F. Williams, “Water in the Cosmos”, in Ocean Worlds, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
- As well as any rocks known anywhere, they document the remarkable diversification of animal life popularly known as the Cambrian Explosion.2015, Andrew H[erbert] Knoll, “In the Beginning?”, in Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth, new...
- The Cambrian explosion, also called the biological big bang, was a period about 538.8m years ago when almost all major animal groups started to appear in the fossil record.2022 November 22, Donna Lu, “The real paleo diet: researchers find traces of world’s oldest meal in 550m-year-old fossil”, in The Guardian:
Synonyms of Cambrian explosion
Forms of Cambrian explosion
| Proper noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | Cambrian explosions |
| Noun | |
| plural | Cambrian explosions |
Origin of Cambrian explosion
Of unclear origin, inspired by George Gaylord Simpson's description of "explosive" evolution. The earliest known use is in a BSCS high school biology textbook written in 1961 under the direction of paleobotanist Wilson Steward.
Questions about Cambrian explosion
- What does Cambrian explosion mean?
- Cambrian explosion means the relatively rapid appearance, during the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record.
- What is Cambrian explosion in Hindi?
- Cambrian explosion in Hindi is कैम्ब्रियाई विस्तार (kaimbriyāī vistār). See Cambrian explosion meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use Cambrian explosion in a sentence?
- Evidence of transitional stages is missing both in the living world and in the "Cambrian explosions" at Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies and at the Chengjiang site in China.
- What part of speech is Cambrian explosion?
- Cambrian explosion can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce Cambrian explosion?
- Cambrian explosion is pronounced /ˈkam.bɹɪ.ən ɪkˈspləʊ.ʒən/ (UK).
Words near Cambrian explosion in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Cambrian explosion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-Cambrian explosion.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Cambrian explosion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cambrian_explosion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.