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The Cambrian Period witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earth's history, known as the Cambrian explosion, in which most modern phyla first appeared. Fish, arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, and synapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean but eventually transitioned onto land, and by the late Paleozoic, it was dominated by various forms of organisms.
By the late Devonian, 360 million years ago, early cartilaginous fish and bony fish were diversifying. The late Devonian also marked the first tetrapods -- vertebrates with true legs that could walk on land. By about 330 million years ago, in the Mississippian, several groups of land-dwelling amphibians had appeared.The oldest known amniotes -- close to the ancestry of all reptiles, birds, and mammals -- appeared in the early Pennsylvanian, about 310 million years ago.ut to give a very brief summary: The first known vertebrate fossils, found at the Chengjiang locality in China, date back to the early Cambrian. These early vertebrates, such as Haikouichthys, are small, tapered, streamlined animals showing eyes, a brain, pharyngeal arches, a notochord, and rudimentary vertebrae.