Table of Contents

I • Introduction.- 1 • Origin and Early Radiation of the Metazoa.- II • The Late Proterozoic.- 2 • Faunas and Facies—Fact and Artifact: Paleoenvironmental Controls on the Distribution of Early Cambrian Faunas.- 3 • Biological and Biogeochemical Preludes to the Ediacaran Radiation.- III • Vendian Faunas of the World.- 4 • Vendian Faunas and the Early Evolution of Metazoa.- 5 • Functional and Ecological Aspects of Ediacaran Assemblages.- 6 • The Record of Trace Fossils across the Proterozoic—Cambrian Boundary.- IV • Radiations of the Cambrian Faunas.- 7 • The Lower Cambrian Fossil Record of the Soviet Union.- 8 • Lower Cambrian of Southeastern Newfoundland: Epeirogeny and Lazarus Faunas, Lithofacies—Biofacies Linkages, and the Myth of a Global Chronostratigraphy.- 9 • The Lower Cambrian Fossil Record of China.- 10 • The Early Cambrian Radiation of Arthropods.- 11 • Radiation of Echinodermata.- 12 • The Cambrian Radiation of Brachiopods.- 13 • Diversification of Archaeocyatha.- V • Overview of the Proterozoic/Cambrian Radiations.- 14 • Early Radiation of Biomineralizing Phyla.- 15 • Paleoceanography and Changes in the Biological Cycling of Phosphorus across the Precambrian—Cambrian Boundary.- 16 • The Macroevolution of Phyla.