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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2017
The initial explosive radiation of echinoderms in the Cambrian and Ordovician is very likely the single most spectacular evolutionary pattern shown by echinoderms during their long fossil record. This radiation involved 19–20 echinoderm classes and lasted from the Early Cambrian (perhaps latest Precambrian) to the end of the Middle Ordovician. It is important because in many ways this initial radiation determined the entire Paleozoic record for echinoderms. In addition, it is almost a textbook example of a major adaptive radiation (Raup and Stanley, 1978, p. 307, 357–360), and also fits nicely the two-stage metazoan diversification model for the Early Paleozoic outlined by Sepkoski (1979).