The Early Paleozoic World: Chapter Objectives

After completing this chapter, students should:

1. Know what constituted the "Cambrian explosion of life" and be able to describe the fossil record of the Early Cambrian fauna.
2. Understand how life evolved during the Middle and Late Cambrian periods.
3. Be able to describe the Burgess Shale fauna.
4. Know what major forms of life expanded in the Early Ordovician Period.
5. Know what constituted the great Ordovician radiation of life and be able to describe the fossil record of the Middle and Late Ordovician fauna.
6. Understand the role of extinction in the evolution of life during the Ordovician Period.
7. Be able to describe the major paleogeographic trends of the Cambrian Period and how they affected patterns of sedimentation.
8. Understand the pattern of trilobite mass extinctions and adaptive radiations during the Cambrian Period.
9. Know the major paleogeographic trends of the Ordovician Period.
10. Know the evidence for the brevity of the period of glaciation at the end of the Ordovician Period.
11. Be able to supply a possible reason for the abrupt expansion of glaciers near the end of the Ordovician Period.
12. Be able to describe the characteristics of the mass extinctions that ended the Ordovician Period.
13. Understand the events of the Taconic orogeny on the eastern margin of Laurentia.
14. Know the patterns of deposition in western Laurentia near the end of Ordovician time.
15. Be able to describe the depositional environment of the Burgess Shale.