Gentle Giants of the Cambrian.

Animation of the Cambrian Period. Kids love dinosaurs. I know I did when I was a kid, and maybe you know someone who likes dinosaurs right now.

Modern animation and recent discoveries in the fossil record combine to provide exciting possibilities for animation. While it's natural to think, "Well, it's history, it's never going to change," in fact, the entire study of the fossil record is evolving constantly.

From the Youtube video page:

More than 500 million years ago in the Cambrian period there was an explosion of animal life. The top predators were from a group called the Anomalocarids, the largest animals of their day. But now, a new fossil suggests that not all the Anomalocarids were the fearsome killing machines scientists once thought. At least one, it seems, evolved into a gentle giant.

Recent developments include new information about these anomalocarids found in northern Greenland. Back in the day, those remote regions were much warmer than they are now, so their remoteness now has helped preserve their lasting secrets.

It's also fun watching how excited the scientists get about the fossils and the jargon that is current, such as "apex predators." This is exciting stuff, though it is subtle and only exciting to those who understand the significance of what is being found.

The name of the video is "Gentle giants of the Cambrian," so that tells you a little bit right there about them. Are these the ancestors of modern whales? 520 million years on, these ancient creatures are not as far away as we might think. One thing is for sure, bumping into one would be a bit scary, then or now, no matter how gentle they might be.

2020