Editing Pannotia (section)

==Break-up==
{{Multiple image | total_width = 400 | align = left
 | image1 = Laurasia 600Ma.jpg
 | image2 = Laurasia 550Ma.jpg
 | footer = Pannotia formed as Proto-Laurasia was added to Gondwana c. 600&nbsp;Ma (left) and broke up 550&nbsp;Ma (right) when Laurasia broke apart.<br />View centred on the South Pole.
}}
The break-up of Pannotia was accompanied by sea level rise, dramatic changes in climate and ocean water chemistry, and [[Cambrian explosion|rapid metazoan diversification]].<ref name="Murphy-etal-2009-p410" /> {{Harvnb|Bond|Nickeson|Kominz|1984}} found Neoproterozoic [[passive margin]] sequences worldwide—the first indication of a Late Neoproterozoic supercontinent but also the traces of its demise.<ref name="Meert-Lieberman-2004-p4">{{Harvnb|Meert|Lieberman|2004|loc=Results, Discussion, pp. 4–5}}</ref>

The Iapetus Ocean started to open while Pannotia was being assembled, 200 Ma after the break-up of Rodinia.  This opening of the Iapetus and other Cambrian seas coincided with the first steps in the evolution of soft-bodied metazoans, and also made a myriad of habitats available for them; this led to the so-called Cambrian explosion, the rapid evolution of [[Cambrian explosion#Ediacaran–Early Cambrian skeletonisation|skeletalized metazoans]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Dalziel|1997|p=38}}</ref>

[[Trilobite]]s originated in the Neoproterozoic and began to diversify before the break-up of Pannotia 600–550&nbsp;Ma, as evidenced by their ubiquitous presence in the fossil record, and the lack of [[vicariance]] patterns in their lineage.<ref name="Meert-Lieberman-2004-p4" />