Curious creatures - the Cambrian explosion of life

The new ELI today is 'Curious creatures; using fossil and modern evidence to work out the lifestyles of extinct animals'. Pupils are asked to try to compare the features of animals today with those of Cambrian fossils - can they then predict the lifestyles of the extinct animals?
Life on Earth suddenly diversified around 500 million years ago   when shells and skeletons appeared for the first time in the fossil record. All animal life today probably evolved from some of these creatures, while others became extinct. Evolution is often thought of as a simple line or chain of ancestors and descendants, when it actually consists of many branches, most of which have become extinct.
This is one of many activities about the Evolution of Life, free to download from our website.