In those days there were no grass-roots movements, largely due to the lack of any grass.

This comic was inspired by an eye-opening talk at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on “The Cambrian explosion and the origin of animals” given by Prof. Paul Smith. Even before the Cambrian started, 540 million years ago, animal body plans were evolving down in the smelly mud at the edge of the continental shelves (as I understood it.)

Pictured left-to-right: Charnia, Dickinsonia and some kind of jellyfish.

↓ Transcript
sings: Evolution not revolution
sings: Mutate and replicate
band name: pre cambrian explosion
caption: Meanwhile, in the neo-proterozoic, change was fomenting.