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No (Cambrian) explosion and no (Ordovician) event: a single long-term radiation in the Early Palaeozoic
A number of terminologies have been created in the last decades to describe the Early Palaeozoic radiation (or part of it) in more or less spectacular terms: Cambrian explosion, Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), Great Mid-Palaeozoic Transition, Ordovician bioerosion revolution, Late Ordovician Mass Extinction Event (LOME), etc. With the analyses of more complete datasets, including all fossil groups and all palaeogeographical areas, it becomes more and more evident that the Cambrian “explosion” was not an “explosion” of diversity during a short interval in the Cambrian, and that the Ordovician radiation is not related to a specific geological “event”. In the contrary, the datasets show that all these “explosions”, “revolutions” and “events” are part of a single long-term radiation, that started in the late Precambrian and continued into the Devonian.