🔬 Science Aug 12, 2026 · Kiona N. Smith

Did poop enable the evolution of complex animals?

Ars Technica Science
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Did poop enable the evolution of complex animals?
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The Cambrian explosion may have been fueled by poop.
The first animals on Earth emerged about 600 million years ago, and 60 million years later, those simple early animals evolved in wildly different directions, branching out into a diverse menagerie of complicated new forms and conquering new ecological niches. Known as the Cambrian Explosion, this flurry of rapid evolution produced most of the animal phyla and ecosystems we see around us today.
And it may have taken off because some of those e

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