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Early evolution of animals: a paleontological perspective

Published on September 30, 2026   42 min

Other Talks in the Series: Introduction to Evolutionary Biology

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0:00
Hello. My name is Shuhai Xiao, and I'm a professor of geobiology at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia in the United States. Today, I want to talk about the early evolution of animals from a paleontological perspective.
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I would like to start with this quote from Charles Darwin. In 1859, Darwin wrote in his book On the Origin of Species. Consequently, if my theory, the theory of natural selection, if my theory be true, it is indisputable that before the lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited, the world swarmed with living creatures, and by that he meant animal life. But at that time there were no fossil animals predating the Cambrian period. This is a major challenge to Darwin's theory of natural selection. But very quickly Darwin found a solution and he continued. I look at the natural geological record as a history of the world imperfectly kept. Only here and there has a short chapter has been preserved and he continued in each chapter on here and there a few pages preserved and on each page on here there, a few lines were preserved. Darwin interpreted the lack of Precambrian animal fossils as a result of the incomplete preservation of fossils and the entire Precambrian chapter of animal evolution is missing from the fossil record. From here, one can understand that looking for the missing fossil record of early animal evolution is extremely important to fill the fossil gaps. Darwin not only realized the importance of

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