A new timescale for constraining animal evolution during the Cambrian radiation

This project aims to build a new timescale to constrain the origination of animal body plans, timing of lineage divergences and sequence of character trait assembly in complex animals during the Cambrian evolutionary radiation. New mineral mapping and laser mass spectrometry techniques pioneered by the CI and AIs will be integrated to precisely date individual glauconite grains, a sea-water derived mineral common in richly fossiliferous lower Cambrian sedimentary rocks around the world. This will produce previously unobtainable temporal constraints on the unique evolutionary events associated with the Cambrian radiation, and allow for the first time the precise correlation of Cambrian aged sections from several continents.