Editing Paleozoic (section)

==Fauna==
A noteworthy feature of Paleozoic life is the sudden appearance of nearly all of the [[invertebrate]] animal phyla in great abundance at the beginning of the Cambrian. The first vertebrates appeared in the form of primitive fish, which greatly diversified in the Silurian and Devonian Periods. The first animals to venture onto dry land were the arthropods. Some fish had lungs, and powerful bony fins that in the late Devonian, 367.5&nbsp;million years ago, allowed them to crawl onto land. The bones in their fins eventually evolved into legs and they became the first tetrapods, {{Ma|390}}, and began to develop lungs. Amphibians were the dominant tetrapods until the mid-Carboniferous, when climate change greatly reduced their diversity, allowing amniotes to take over. Amniotes would split into two clades shortly after their origin in the Carboniferous; the synapsids, which was the dominant group, and the [[Sauropsida|sauropsids]]. The synapsids continued to prosper and increase in number and variety till the end of the Permian period. In late middle Permian the [[Pareiasauria|pareiasaurs]] originated, successful herbivores and the only sauropsids that could reach sizes comparable to some of the largest synapsids.<ref name=Sahney-Benton-Falcon-2010>{{cite journal |author1=Sahney, S. |author2=Benton, M.J. |author3=Falcon-Lang, H.J. |name-list-style=amp |year=2010 |title=Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica |journal=Geology |volume=38 |issue=12 |pages=1079–1082 |doi=10.1130/G31182.1 |bibcode=2010Geo....38.1079S |url=http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/38/12/1079 |format=PDF abstract |access-date=2012-02-17 |archive-date=2011-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011144357/http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/38/12/1079 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.livescience.com/43219-permian-period-climate-animals-plants.html Permian Period: Climate, Animals & Plants]</ref><ref>[https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2023/2023-07/gigantic-extinct-reptile-weighed-as-much-as-a-black-rhino.html Gigantic extinct reptile weighed as much as a black rhino]</ref>

The Palaeozoic marine fauna was notably lacking in predators relative to the present day. Predators made up about 4% of the fauna in Palaeozoic assemblages while making up 17% of temperate Cenozoic assemblages and 31% of tropical ones. Infaunal animals made up 4% of soft substrate Palaeozoic communities but about 47% of Cenozoic communities. Additionally, the Palaeozoic had very few facultatively motile animals that could easily adjust to disturbance, with such creatures composing 1% of its assemblages in contrast to 50% in Cenozoic faunal assemblages. Non-motile animals untethered to the substrate, extremely rare in the Cenozoic, were abundant in the Palaeozoic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bush |first=Andrew M. |last2=Bambach |first2=Richard K. |last3=Daley |first3=Gwen M. |date=January 2007 |title=Changes in theoretical ecospace utilization in marine fossil assemblages between the mid-Paleozoic and late Cenozoic |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/abs/changes-in-theoretical-ecospace-utilization-in-marine-fossil-assemblages-between-the-midpaleozoic-and-late-cenozoic/40836F638A27707DD59E25FAE3B01B31 |journal=[[Paleobiology (journal)|Paleobiology]] |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=76–97 |doi=10.1666/06013.1 |issn=0094-8373 |access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>