Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
There's so much to know about the Burgess Shale and its relevance to the Cambrian Explosion that it'd be impossible to fit all this information even into a whole year's worth of podcasts!
If you've ever wanted to have that kind of detail, then your only option has been to enrol on a palaeo degree and to sit a module on the Cambrian Explosion.
So instead of having go through all that, we've teamed up with Dr Alejandro Izquierdo-Lopez to bring you this university-level series of lectures introducing you to what is arguably the world's most famous lagerstätte and to one of the most significant evolutionary events in life's history.
In this, the first of FIVE lectures, you'll hear all about the Cambrian Explosion as we learn about the diversity trends, evolutionary innovations and changes in ecology that all occur during this time.
Series structure:
1. The Cambrian Explosion and the diversification of animals
2. The Burgess Shale and life 508 million years ago
3. Early animal evolution 1: from sponges to vertebrates
4. Early animal evolution 2: the origin of shells and jaws
5. Early animal evolution 3: the rise of arthropods
This lecture series was originally released as a Patreon exclusive, however our members recognise the educational benefit of this content and are in agreement that it should be made public.
To help us continue to make similar content, please consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/c/palaeocast
There's so much to know about the Burgess Shale and its relevance to the Cambrian Explosion that it'd be impossible to fit all this information even into a whole year's worth of podcasts!
If you've ever wanted to have that kind of detail, then your only option has been to enrol on a palaeo degree and to sit a module on the Cambrian Explosion.
So instead of having go through all that, we've teamed up with Dr Alejandro Izquierdo-Lopez to bring you this university-level series of lectures introducing you to what is arguably the world's most famous lagerstätte and to one of the most significant evolutionary events in life's history.
In this, the first of FIVE lectures, you'll hear all about the Cambrian Explosion as we learn about the diversity trends, evolutionary innovations and changes in ecology that all occur during this time.
Series structure:
1. The Cambrian Explosion and the diversification of animals
2. The Burgess Shale and life 508 million years ago
3. Early animal evolution 1: from sponges to vertebrates
4. Early animal evolution 2: the origin of shells and jaws
5. Early animal evolution 3: the rise of arthropods
This lecture series was originally released as a Patreon exclusive, however our members recognise the educational benefit of this content and are in agreement that it should be made public.
To help us continue to make similar content, please consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/c/palaeocast
